RESUMO
BACKGROUND: The relationship between gastric cancer and gastritis cystica profunda (GCP) has been frequently reported on, but there have been no systemic studies on whether or not GCP is a precancerous lesion. The aim of this study is to retrospectively analyze the groups in which some of the patients were accompanied by carcinoma and the other patients were non-cancerous (35 GCP cases were without previous surgery). METHODS: From February 2000 through July 2005, 35 cases of GCP without antecedent gastric surgery were diagnosed histologically. We reviewed the medical records, the endoscopic findings and the histologic findings of the patients. RESULTS: In these cases, the age ranged from 33 and 82 years (mean: 63+/-10.1 years). The endoscopic findings of GCP were various: there were 6 erosions and 9 ulcers in the cancer group and 12 polyps in the non-cancer group (p=0.000). The mean size of the lesions was 21.4+/-17.8 mm in the cancer group and 14.6+/-9.3 mm in the non-cancer group (p=0.337). Hypertension was associated with 15 cases (42.9%) in the cancer group and with 2 cases (5.7%) in the non-cancer group (p=0.000). There were 13 smokers (37.1%) in the cancer group and 6 smokers (17.1%) in the non-cancer group (p=0.028). For the histologic findings, 6 GCP patients were associated with dysplasia of adenomas, 4 GCP patients with intestinal metaplasias and 28 GCP patients (80%) with precancerous lesions and carcinomas. CONCLUSIONS: In this study, 18 GCP patients (51.4%) were associated with carcinoma and 10 GCP patients (29%) were associated with precancerous lesions. These results suggest that GCP is a precancerous or paracancerous lesion and it may be one step in the development of carcinoma. The underlying mechanisms of gastric carcinogenesis might be confirmed if we investigate the gene mutations and environmental differences of documented GCP cases that are without previous surgery.