Neutral mucin content of gastric carcinomas as a diagnostic aid in the identification of secondary deposits

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Abstract
A simple quantitative method used in conjunction with the diastase digestion-Alcian blue-PAS [periodic acid-Schiff] (D-AB-PAS) technique was employed in a retrospective study of 135 gastrectomy carcinomas, and in a range of 57 unrelated metastatic adenocarcinoma cases of confirmed origin, to determine what proportion of malignant cells/glands contained neutral mucin only, as against acidic mucin or mixtures of both acid and neutral types. Fifty of the gastrectomy cases (37%) showed a high neutral mucin content of 71% or more, this feature being more evident in the diffuse (D) type of tumor. The metastatic adenocarcinoma cases comprised 35 of non-gastric origin of which 8 (23%) had a high neutral mucin content of 71% or more, compared to 10 of 22 cases of gastric origin (45%) having a neutral mucin content of 71% or more. Seven of these 10 gastric cases were of the D type of tumor. The secondary adenocarcinoma of uncertain (unconfirmed) origin contained a group of cases with deposits of probable gastric origin of which more than half showed a high proportion of cells which contained neutral mucin only. The helpfulness of the findings is discussed.