A rare case of gastric signet ring cell carcinoma in a patient with acromegaly

Abstract

Acromegaly is frequently associated with the development of colon and thyroid cancer. Stomach cancer concomitant with this pathology is a rare form of tumorigenic complications of acromegaly. The present paper reports a 33 year-old woman with verified diagnosis of acromegaly characterized by enhanced serum IGF-1 and GH levels and the presence of pituitary microadenoma confirmed by the MRT study (2006). The patient was many times advised to undergo neurosurgical treatment that she flatly refused. The patient was regularly treated with sandostatin and dopamine agonists. In 2008, the patient began to complain of uncomfortable feeling in the epigastric region and was examined in the ultrasound study of the abdominal cavity and small pelvis organs. She was found to develop ascites and bilateral ovarian tumour. By way of preparing for the surgical treatment of ovarian cancer, the patient underwent gastroscopy that revealed infiltrative ulcers in the stomach. The histological study of gastric biopsies gave evidence of gastric signet ring cell carcinoma while the bilateral ovarian tumour turned out to be Krukenberg's metastases.