Background and objectives: As there is no consensus regarding the prognosis of patients with signet cell carcinoma of the stomach compared with other types of gastric cancer, we retrospectively studied the clinicopathologic features and prognosis of signet cell carcinoma in comparison with other types of gastric cancer.
Methods: Gastrectomies were performed because of gastric cancer in 1,498 patients between 1970 and 1994. Of the 154 patients diagnosed with signet ring cell carcinoma, 94 had early and 60 had advanced gastric carcinoma. The percentage of patients with an early carcinoma was significantly higher among those with signet ring cell carcinoma compared with those with other gastric carcinoma histologies.
Results: The survival of the total group of patients with signet ring cell carcinoma was significantly better than that of patients with other types of gastric carcinoma (P < 0.05). Survival of the subset of patients with early signet ring cell carcinoma was also improved compared with patients with other types of gastric carcinoma (P < 0.05). However, patients with advanced signet ring cell carcinoma had a poor prognosis similar to that of patients with other types of gastric carcinoma.