Gastric carcinoma with lymphoid stroma: association with Epstein virus genome demonstrated by PCR.

Gastric carcinoma with lymphoid stroma is a rare and well known entity. Histologically tumour is extremely cellular infiltrated by fairly large number of lymphocytes. The infiltrate can be so dense that a mistaken diagnosis of lymphoma may be made on endoscopic biopsy or even in resection specimen. The entity is known by various names, which include medullary carcinoma with lymphocytic infiltration of the stomach, blue cell cancer, lymphoepithelial carcinoma of stomach or gastric carcinoma with lymphoid stroma. Association of this type of gastric carcinoma with Epstein Barr Virus is well known. In a study from Japan, EBV sequence was detected in 81 out of 99 cases. Whereas only 21 out of 42 ordinary adenocarcinoma showed this sequence. We describe a case of gastric carcinoma with lymphoid stroma in a female. We were able to detect Epstein Barr Virus DNAby polymerase chain reaction in this case.