The clinicopathological significance of neuroendocrine cells in gastric carcinoma

One hundred and twenty cases of gastric carcinoma were examined with immunohistochemical SP method for chromogranin A (CgA),gastrin (GAS),somatostain (SS) and serotonin(5-HT)follows:Among four antibodies,CgA was most specific,31.7%gastric carcinoma had CgA-positive cells;the positive rate of CgA in the well differentiated carcinomas was higher than that of the poorly differentiated ones and undifferentiated carcinomas (P<0.05),CgA-positive undifferentiated carcinomas had more NE cells(++);but among different histological type,the positive rate of HT and SS in undifferentiated carcinomas was lower (P>0.05).CgA and HT positive cases had higher lymph node metastasis rate than the negative ones (P<0.05).The cases with CgA-positive cells(++)exhibited shorter survival time than those with few CgA-positive cells(+)and without CgA-positive cells