Gastric adenocarcinoma, cytokeratins

Adenocarcinoma of the stomach shows a variable immunostaining pattern.

Miettinen1 reported cytokeratin 20 positivity in 21 of 31 gastric carcinomas: these were variously of intestinal and diffuse (signet ring cell) type with variable staining in both types.

The following two papers report liver metastases from gastric adenocarcinoma:

number of
cases = 142

CK7

CK8

CK18

CK19

CK20

extensively positive (>66% cells)

5

4

0

2

1

moderately positive (10-66% cells)

3

5

2

3

2

focally positive (1-10% cells)

1

3

2

5

4

negative

5

2

10

4

7

 

number of cases=103

CK7

CK20

diffusely positive

focally positive

negative

diffusely positive

focally positive

negative

 

6

0

4

3

2

5

 

merging cases which were diffusely or focally positive:

number of cases=10

CK7+/CK20+

CK7+/CK20-

 

CK7-/CK20+

CK7-/CK20-

 

2

4

3

1

Reference

1Miettinen M. Keratin 20: immunohistochemical marker for gastrointestinal, urothelial and Merkel cell carcinomas. Mod Pathol 1995;8:384-388.

2Shimonishi T, Miyazaki K, Nakanuma Y. Cytokeraitn profile relates to histological subtypes and intrahepatic location of intrahepatic cholangiocarcinoma and primary sites of metastatic adenocarcinoma of liver. Histopathology 2000;37:55-63.

3Tot T. Adenocarcinomas metastatic to the liver. Cancer 1999;85:171-177.