The histopathological characteristics of gastric carcinoma in Bhutanese population: a Retrospective study

Introduction: Gastric cancer is not only the most common cancer, but also the cancer with the highest mortality in Bhutan. The baseline data on the histological phenotype of gastric cancer in Bhutan is not established. Different histological phenotypes have distinct etiology, clinical features, and prognosis. We aimed to assess the histological phenotypes of gastric carcinoma, evaluate the grading, staging, and the association of depth of invasion with the clinicopathological findings. Methods: We conducted a retrospective study, involving 494 cases diagnosed with gastric carcinoma from January 2018 to June 2021. The histopathological characteristics of the patients were presented in frequency, percentage, and mean ± standard deviation. Results: Gastric carcinoma was most prevalent in males (60.7%) and predominantly diagnosed in patients more than 60 years of age (67.6%). Antrum (76.5%) was the most common location for gastric carcinoma, and tubular adenocarcinoma (81.6%) was the most common histological phenotype in this study followed by poorly cohesive carcinoma, signet-ring-cell type (12.8%). Most of the patients were at an advanced stage (pT4) at the time of diagnosis (32.7%). Conclusions: The histopathological characteristics of gastric carcinoma in the Bhutanese population were similar to regions with high gastric cancer incidence with the preponderance of distal location of the tumor and tubular adenocarcinoma being the most common subtype. As established in other regions, gastric carcinomas were more prevalent among males and patients over 60 years in Bhutan.