[Gastric adenocarcinoma with an endocrine component. Report of nine cases]

Nine gastric adenocarcinomas containing endocrine cells were retrospectively studied to evaluate anatomo-clinical and immunohistochemical features, and the out-come of the patients. These gastric tumors were bulky with frequently lymph node metastasis. The immunohistochemical analysis had shown that all tumors contain EC cells, two tumors D cells, one tumor PP cells, but neither G cells nor A cells were detected. Five-years survival rate of these gastric tumors was slightly but not significantly increased as compared to usual adenocarcinomas (45.5% vs 36.5%). However, one can raise the question of possible control of local hormonal secretions on tumoral growth, particularly the anti-trophic part of the somatostatin.