Lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma of the stomach: a case report and review of the literature

A lymphoepithelioma-like carcinoma (LLC), characterized by a carcinoma with stromal heavy lymphocyte infiltration, is one of the histological patterns observed in patients with Epstein-Barr virus (EBV)-associated gastric carcinoma. Although this entity is hard to be recognized in the biopsy specimens, pathologists and clinicians should acknowledge this subset of gastric cancer because it generally has a better prognosis than other forms of EBV-associated gastric carcinomas and conventional gastric carcinomas. This might be due to the fact that the patient's inflammatory response may prevent the spread of tumor through the gastric wall and to the lymph nodes or remote organs. We report a case of EBV-positive, microsatellite stable LLC as a rare morphologic variant of gastric carcinoma. VIRTUAL SLIDES: The virtual slides for this article can be found here: http://www.diagnosticpathology.diagnomx.eu/vs/1360498724104351.