Signet Ring Cell Carcinoma of Stomach in Child: Report of a case

Park, Kyeong Mee; Ko, Ill Hyang

Abstract

Cancer of the alimentary tract in children is an extremely rare occurence, and it accounts for no more than 5% of all pediatric neoplasms. Malignant neoplasms of the stomach are particularly uncommon in childhood. The majority of such lesions are malignant lymphomas or soft tissue sarcomas, with less than 5% identified as carcinomas. We report a case of signet ring cell carcinoma of stomach in 15-year-old girl. This patient had a clinical manifestation of cough with sputum, fever, abdominal distension due to ascites, hepatomegaly, and cervical lymphadenopathy for 40 days. There was no known gastrointestinal symptoms. Metastatic signet ring cell carcinoma was suspected by aspiration biopsy cytology of cervical lymph node, and confirmed later by excisional biopsy. Endoscopy confirmed a small mucosal erosion in the anterior wall of the antrum and histopathology confirmed the diagnosis of signet ring cell carcinoma.