Gastric wall shortening in early gastric cancer: upper gastrointestinal series and pathologic correlation

To investigate the causes of gastric wall shortening in early gastric cancer, upper gastrointestinal study was correlated with pathologic findings. We evaluated 41 cases (M:F = 1.7:1, average age = 49) of early gastric cancer, retrospectively. The gastric wall shortening were classified as Grade I; none, Grade II; intermediate, and Grade III; prominent. Pathologic findings such as size of lesions, depth of tumor invasion, degree of the submucosal fibrosis, degree of thickness of the submucosa and muscularis propria, and morphologic patterns of lesions including conversing mucosal folds were correlated with the degree of gastric wall shortening on upper gastrointestinal series. Submucosal fibrosis was present in 4 cases in Grade I (n = 21), 4 cases in Grade II (n = 6) and 8 cases in Grade III (n = 10). Positive conversing mucosal folds were seen in 5 cases in Grade I (n = 17), 0 case in Grade II (n = 2) and 9 cases in Grade III (n = 9). Gastric wall shortening was significantly associated with submucosal fibrosis and conversing mucosal folds of early gastric cancer. (ρ = 0.0001, and ρ = 0.02, respectively) Upper gastrointestinal finding of gastric wall protrusion in patients with early gastric cancer should not misinterprete as advanced gastric cancer since the finding could be a result of submucosal fibrosis