Gastric carcinosarcoma: a rare clinical entity looking for an identity

Abstract

Carcinosarcoma of the stomach represents a rare variant of gastric malignancies. It is composed of intimately mixed epithelial and mesenchymal elements. Only few cases of gastric carcinosarcoma have been reported in the literature. Surgical treatment is the only curative modality, but the disease progress is usually aggressive and its prognosis remains poor even afer curative treatment. The defnitive diagnosis is usually made by histopathological and immunohistochemical analysis of the resected tumor. This review summarizes the available data concerning epidemiology, pathogenesis, clinical characteristics, diagnosis, histopathology, treatment and prognosis of gastric carcinosarcoma.