Gastric adenomyoma presenting as melena

Gastric adenomyoma (AM) is a rare, benign tumor, characteristically composed of glands and cysts, lined by columnar, flattened epithelia and a prominent smooth muscle stroma. Patients with gastric AM may be asymptomatic, or present as nonspecific gastrointestinal symptoms.

A research article to be published on April 21, 2010 in the World Journal of Gastroenterology addresses this question. The research team led by Dr. Wen-Yong Sun from Zhejiang Cancer Hospital reported a case of gastric AM seen in a 68-year-old man with a 1-week history of melena.

Their results showed that gastric AM should be always considered in the differential diagnosis of extramucosal gastric lesions. Despite the development of modern diagnostic modalities, including computed tomography and endoscopic ultrasonography, its diagnosis remains challenging. If in doubt, frozen section can help to avoid unnecessary radical operation.

Reference: Zhu HN, Yu JP, Luo J, Jiang YH, Li JQ, Sun WY. Gastric adenomyoma presenting as melena: A case report and literature review. World J Gastroenterol 2010; 16(15): 1934-1936 http://www.wjgnet.com/1007-9327/full/v16/i15/1934.htm

Correspondence to: Dr. Wen-Yong Sun, Department of Pathology, Zhejiang Cancer Hospital, 38 Guangji Road, Banshan Bridge, Hangzhou 310022, Zhejiang Province, China. fly_007007@126.com Telephone: +86-571-88122266 Fax: +86-571-88122261

About World Journal of Gastroenterology

World Journal of Gastroenterology (WJG), a leading international journal in gastroenterology and hepatology, has established a reputation for publishing first class research on esophageal cancer, gastric cancer, liver cancer, viral hepatitis, colorectal cancer, and H pylori infection and provides a forum for both clinicians and scientists. WJG has been indexed and abstracted in Current Contents/Clinical Medicine, Science Citation Index Expanded (also known as SciSearch) and Journal Citation Reports/Science Edition, Index Medicus, MEDLINE and PubMed, Chemical Abstracts, EMBASE/Excerpta Medica, Abstracts Journals, Nature Clinical Practice Gastroenterology and Hepatology, CAB Abstracts and Global Health. ISI JCR 2008 IF: 2.081. WJG is a weekly journal published by WJG Press. The publication dates are the 7th, 14th, 21st, and 28th day of every month. WJG is supported by The National Natural Science Foundation of China, No. 30224801 and No. 30424812, and was founded with the name of China National Journal of New Gastroenterology on October 1, 1995, and renamed WJG on January 25, 1998.