Abstract: Objective To analyze clinicopathologic characteristics of early signet ring cell carcinoma(SRC), and to differentiate the tumor with other histologic types in T1 gastric cancer.Methods A retrospective analysis was undertaken for 255 patients with early gastric cancer who had experienced curative gastrectomy or endoscopic biopsy. Among them, 27 patients had SRC.Results The patients with early SRC (50.7±2.2) y was much younger than the T1 gastric cancer of the poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma (57.3±1.42) y and tubular adenocarcinoma (60.6±1.0) y(P<0.01). Patients with early gastric SRC had a greater proportion of females than other histologic types(P<0.01). 63.0% of early gastric cancer (EGC) lesions in SRC located in the middle third of the stomach, and 77.8% macroscopic types of EGC in SRC were depressed. 77.8% of SRC lesions were limited within the mucosal layer,which were more than poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma(56.3%) and tubular adenocarcinoma(61.0%). Early SRC had a similar rate of lymph node metastasis(18.5%) to poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma(17.2%), and a higher rate than tubular adenocarcinoma(12.1%),but there were no statistically significant differences(P>0.05). There were no significant difference of tumor size among early SRC,poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma and tubular adenocarcinoma(P>0.05).In early SRC,there was no significance difference in lymph node metastasis according to depth of invasion(P>0.05).Conclusion In early gastric cancer, SRC is a distinct type of gastric carcinoma in terms of clinicopathologic characteristics,which may have some value in the treatment strategy and prognosis assessment.

Key words: stomach neoplasms, carcinoma,signet ring cell, pathology,clinical