Epstein‐Barr virus (EBV) involvement in gastric carcinoma has been demonstrated by the presence of EBV genomes and EBV‐encoded small RNA (EBER) in the carcinoma cells, monoclonal proliferation of EBV‐infected carcinoma cells and elevated antibody titers. The present study was conducted to investigate the prevalence of EBV involvement among gastric carcinomas observed in nine Japanese cities with varying gastric cancer rates. In situ hybridization of EBER‐1 was applied to paraffin sections from 1848 carcinomas observed in 1795 cases and EBV involvement was detected based on uniform hybridization in carcinoma cells. Epstein‐Barr virus was detected in 6.6% of lesions and 6.7% of cases. The rate of EBV involvement did not vary significantly for each city and there was no correlation with underlying gastric cancer mortality rates. Thus, geographic variation of gastric cancer rates within Japan cannot be explained in terms of EBV involvement. Epstein‐Barr virus‐related gastric carcinoma is one of the most common EBV‐related tumors in Japan. The involvement of EBV was significantly more frequent among males than among females, mainly for cancers occurring in the upper and middle part of the stomach, and exhibited more variation by cell type among males. These observations suggest that other factors yet to be discovered may modulate the causal role of EBV in gastric carcinogenesis.

Background-Gastric stump cancer (GSC) is usually diagnosed at an advanced stage, and consequently the prognosis is poor. Aims-To investigate the clinicopathological characteristics of GSC at an early stage to assist in its identification, and thereby improve its prognosis. Methods-Forty three patients with resected early GSC were compared with 156 patients with resected primary early cancer in the upper third of the stomach. Results-Sixty five per cent (28/43) of the early GSC patients showed the elevated type endoscopically, although the frequency of the depressed type in GSC has tended to increase in the past five years. This occurred in less than 26% (40/156) of the primary early cancers. Half of the early GSCs were located on the lesser curvature (47%), and revealed diVerentiated adenocarcinoma (81%) histologically. The male:female ratio of early GSC cases was about 6:1, which was much higher than that in patients with primary early cancer. The five year survival rates of patients with early GSCs and early primary cancers were 84% and 95%, respectively. GSC had a favourable prognosis, if it was detected at an early stage. Conclusion-To detect early GSC, our results suggest that special attention should be given to elevated as well as depressed lesions on the lesser curvature of the stomach, particularly in men, during endoscopic examinations. (Gut 1998;43:342-344)

In the present study, 62 cases of ocular adnexal lymphoproliferative disorders were reviewed clinicopathologically. Of them, 51 were extranodal marginal zone B-cell lymphoma (MALT lymphoma), five were diffuse large B-cell lymphoma (DLBCL), one was peripheral T-cell lymphoma, one was NK/T cell lymphoma, nasal type, and four were reactive lymphoid hyperplasia. These lymphoma cases showed a favorable clinical course and localized disease, except for the case of NK/T cell lymphoma, although 19 cases (32.8%) had a recurrence of disease. To clarify the correlation between BCL10 protein expression and API2-MALT1 gene rearrangement, the 51 cases of MALT lymphoma and 5 cases of DLBCL were analyzed by immunohistochemical and RT-PCR methods. Nuclear BCL10 expression was identified in 58% of MALT lymphoma cases, but not in any DLBCL cases. There was no evidence of a correlation between aberrant nuclear BCL10 expression and the clinical parameters examined in the present study. API2-MALT1 transcription was not demonstrated in either the MALT lymphoma cases or the DLBCL cases studied using a multiplex one-tube reverse transcriptase-PCR method. These findings indicate that the nuclear expression of BCL10 is unlikely to correlate with the API2-MALT1 fusion gene in ocular adnexal MALT lymphoma.

Follicular dendritic cell (FDC) sarcoma is an exceedingly rare neoplasm of unknown pathogenesis. A case of FDC sarcoma complicated by the hyaline-vascular type Castleman's disease occurring in a schizophrenic male is presented. Swelling of the left cervical lymph node appeared in a 44-year-old male schizophrenic who had been medicated with major tranquilizers for 20 years. He had had a history of cervical lymphadenopathy 14 years before, for which a diagnosis of hyaline-vascular type Castleman's disease had been made. The present specimen, obtained from the same site, was an enlarged lymph node heavily infiltrated with oval to spindle-shaped atypical cells but was uninvolved at the periphery. The infiltrating cells showed nodular or sheet-like growth, occasionally taking fascicular or storiform patterns. Follicular involvement was also common. Peculiarly, various amounts of small lymphocytes were intermingled with the neoplastic cells. The atypical cells expressed two FDC-specific antigens, DRC-1 and Ki-M4 antigen, together with a few other markers that are shared by FDC, including CD21 and HLA-DR. These findings clearly show the tumor to be FDC sarcoma. In addition, a peculiar fibro-hyalinous change in the lymph follicle, which is compatible with hyaline-vascular type Castleman's disease, was noted at the periphery of the lymph node where neoplastic cells had not infiltrated. Surprisingly, similar hyaline-vascular changes were observed in the previous biopsy taken 14 years ago. Meanwhile, Kaposi's sarcoma-associated herpesvirus, which is often identified from generalized Castleman's disease, was not identified in the present case by polymerase chain reaction study. Thus, this case is unique in two aspects: (i) the overlap of FDC sarcoma with hyaline-vascular type follicular changes; and (ii) its occurrence in a schizophrenic patient.