Primary Gastric Small Cell Carcinoma in Elderly Patients: A Case Report and Review of the Literature

Abstract

We report the case of an 86-year-old man with primary gastric small cell carcinoma (SmCC). He was admitted to our hospital owing to gastrointestinal bleeding complicated by anemia. An upper gastrointestinal endoscopic examination revealed a large, irregularly ulcerated tumor on the upper to middle body of the stomach. Small cell carcinoma was diagnosed based on the results of histologic and immunohistochemical studies of an endoscopic biopsy specimen. According to previous reports of gastric SmCC, only one-sixth of cases have been correctly diagnosed preoperatively. In our case, it was an aggressive malignancy that had an extremely poor prognosis. We believe that careful endoscopic examination including immunohistochemical investigation is necessary to accurately diagnose gastric SmCC in clinical practice.

Keywords

• cancer
• elderly
• endoscopy
• small cell carcinoma
• stomach