Gastric cancer pathology and underlying molecular mechanisms

The development of gastric adenocarcinoma is a complex multistep process involving multiple genetic alterations. Based on pathology, four different macroscopic types and at least two major histological types, intestinal and diffuse, have been described. Most gastric cancer (GC) show genetic instability, either microsatellite instability or chromosomal instability, which is considered an early event in gastric carcinogenesis. Molecular studies of alterations of single genes have provided evidence that intestinal and diffuse type GC evolve via different genetic pathways. Recent results from high-throughput whole-genome expression or copy number studies have demonstrated extensive genetic diversity between cases and within individual GC. Sets of commonly up- or downregulated microRNAs have been identified in GC and might be useful in the near future to identify pathways of GC progression. Results from detailed molecular and/or pathological GC studies, although promising, still have limited clinical utility in predicting survival and stratifying GC patients for appropriate treatment.