Gastric metastases mimicking primary gastric cancer: A brief literature review

Abstract

Gastric cancer is the fifth most common cancer worldwide, with most cases presenting in the form of primary tumors. In this paper, we performed a literature review on the incidence and particularities of extragastric metastases. These lesions are rare in clinical practice and can be misdiagnosed as primary undifferentiated gastric carcinomas as the differential diagnosis between primary and secondary malignancy is difficult to make. As per the literature, the most common malignancies which can present gastric metastases are lung cancer, followed by carcinoma of the breast, esophagus, kidney, and head and neck carcinomas. Malignant melanoma, ovarian cancer, prostate cancer, and adrenal gland carcinomas are rarely described as presenting metastases in the stomach. In most cases, the literature addressed poorly differentiated tumors with high-grade malignancy. The most common feature was the ulcerated tumor with depressed area, associated with identifiable extragastric tumor cells in the gastric submucosa. The linitis plastica-like feature is unusual and is more characteristic of breast lobular carcinoma. The accurate diagnosis of such rare extragastric metastatic cases depends on the appropriate clinical history and precise pathological diagnosis, which is mandatory for initiating the best therapeutic options.