|
Three cases of leiomyosarcoma of the stomach, 56, 57 and 63 year old Korean males are reported because of their rarity and difficulty of making differential diagnosis between beneign and malignant leiomyoma, even microscopically. The main symptoms and sings were epigastric discomfort or pain, discovery of mass in the upper abdomen either by the patient or physician at the time of examinaiton, and gastrointesitnal hemorrhage, either tarry stool or melena leading to anemia, weakness, and fatugue. The durations of the symptoms are longer than that of gastric carcinoma. The tumors were located in the lesser curvature, prepyloric region and fundus along the greater curvature of the stomach respectively. The ulcer crater on the overlying mucosa of the tumor was found in two cases and other had a "umbo". The lesions of all cases were of the endogastric type and two of them were pedunculated. The microscopic findings showed matured and immatured smooth muscle cells with profound mitosis, necorsis, hemorrhage and other malignant features. Operative procedures were a transgastric local excision, a partial gastrectomy and a hemigastrectomy respectively. A brief review of the literatures was made.
|