[Cancer of the stomach arising from chronic ulcers (histological and histogenetic problems]

Malignization of chronic peptic ulcers occurs in 9.7% of cases. Carcinomas of various histological structures develop in the edges of chronic ulcers: dark-cell adenocarcinomas, low-differentiated, colloid cancers, and combinations thereof. Dark-cell adenocarcinomas are most prevalent. In the early stages of development all carcinomas are detected in the upper parts of the mucosa. The basic processes developing in the surrounding mucosa are all of the same type (proliferation of dark cells of the pit-cervical parts of the glands, intestinal metaplasia, atrophic processes). The current opinion held in the literature that various histological variants of gastric carcinoma are determined by different cell sources seems to be erroneous. All or at least the majority of gastric carcinoma due to chronic ulcer develop from the cells of the fossa-cervical parts.