Histological Profile of Chronic Inflammation in Gastric Adenocarcinomas

Gastric adenocarcinomas (GAC) constitute a major problem in clinical practice, for which late diagnosis and heterogeneity contribute greatly to maintaining epidemiological mortality rates. One of the recent approaches related to the prognosis and therapy of GAC refers to the activation of an effective antitumor immune response, which is not fully known in terms of cellular substrate or interaction with the tumor parenchyma. In this study, we analyzed the chronic mononuclear inflammatory infiltrate in 125 primitive GAC, in relation to the classic histological parameters of tumor aggressiveness, based on a composite histological score (CHS) that took into account the distribution and density of the elements tracked. The results indicated significant differences, most GAC having a predominantly peritumoral infiltrate except for poorly cohesive signet ring cell carcinomas (PC-SRC) in which intratumoral elements predominated. Density and CHS were higher in PC-SRC GAC and MX-GAC (mixed), in high-grade, stage III tumors with vascular invasion. Although the pattern or density of inflammation in GAC does not necessarily reflect the orientation or antitumor efficacy of immune elements, the data obtained may be useful for the development of histological criteria to assist in stratifying patients for therapy.