[Malignant degeneration of Ménétrier disease]

Gastric cancer was found in a patient in whom Menetrier's disease had been diagnosed 18 months before. In Menetrier's disease, incidence of cancer is as high as 14% of cases. But in only 5 cases of literature including the present one, has the time sequence been clearly documented. Metachronous tumours may be found 1 to 5 years after giant hypertrophic gastritis has been diagnozed. Such data make medical management, including anti-secretory drugs and periodic endoscopic survey, hazardous. We suggest that in documented Menetrier's disease elective total gastrectomy should still be considered as a treatment of choice.