Gastric cancer arising from the remnant stomach after distal gastrectomy: a review.

Gastric stump carcinoma was initially reported by Balfore in 1922, and many reports of this disease have since been published. We herein review previous reports of gastric stump carcinoma with respect to epidemiology, carcinogenesis, Helicobacter pylori (H. pylori) infection, Epstein-Barr virus infection, clinicopathologic characteristics and endoscopic treatment. In particular, it is noteworthy that no prognostic differences are observed between gastric stump carcinoma and primary upper third gastric cancer. In addition, endoscopic submucosal dissection has recently been used to treat gastric stump carcinoma in the early stage. In contrast, many issues concerning gastric stump carcinoma remain to be clarified, including molecular biological characteristics and the carcinogenesis of H. pylori infection. We herein review the previous pertinent literature and summarize the characteristics of gastric stump carcinoma reported to date.