Poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma misdiagnosed as gastrointestinal stromal tumor: A case report

doi:10.4251/wjgo.v18.i8.120791

Advanced Search

BPG is committed to discovery and dissemination of knowledge

Home / Archive / Volume 18, Issue 8

This Article

(5)

(3)

(0)

(14)

Peer-Review Report of This Article

CrossCheck and Google Search of This Article

Academic Rules and Norms of This Article

Citation of this article

Corresponding Author of This Article

Research Domain of This Article

Article-Type of This Article

Open-Access Policy of This Article

Times Cited Counts in Google of This Article

Journal Information of This Article

Publication Name

World Journal of Gastrointestinal Oncology

ISSN

1948-5204

Publisher of This Article

Baishideng Publishing Group Inc, 7041 Koll Center Parkway, Suite 160, Pleasanton, CA 94566, USA

Case Report

Copyright: ©Author(s) 2026. This article is an open access article distributed under the terms and conditions of the Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license. No commercial re-use. See permissions. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc.

World J Gastrointest Oncol. Aug 15, 2026; 18(8): 120791
Published online Aug 15, 2026. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v18.i8.120791

Poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma misdiagnosed as gastrointestinal stromal tumor: A case report

Li-Ying Xu, Yu-Qi Lin, Ri-Yan Yao, Mei-Lin Yang, Hua-Feng Shen, Gao-Song Zhang

Li-Ying Xu, Department of Medical Administration, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University (Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine), Hangzhou 310006, Zhejiang Province, China

Yu-Qi Lin, The First Affiliated Hospital of Zhejiang Chinese Medical University (Zhejiang Provincial Hospital of Chinese Medicine), Hangzhou 310006, Zhejiang Province, China

Ri-Yan Yao, Mei-Lin Yang, Gao-Song Zhang, Department of Gastroenterology, The People’s Hospital of Xinchang, Shaoxing 312500, Zhejiang Province, China

Hua-Feng Shen, Department of Pathology, The People’s Hospital of Xinchang, Shaoxing 312500, Zhejiang Province, China

Co-first authors: Li-Ying Xu and Yu-Qi Lin.

Author contributions: Xu LY, Lin YQ and Yao RY contributed to manuscript writing and editing; Xu LY and Lin YQ contributed equally to this manuscript as co-first authors; Yao RY and Yang ML contributed to collection of clinical data; Shen HF contributed to analysis of pathological results; Zhang GS contributed to conceptualization and supervision. All authors have read and approved the final manuscript.

AI contribution statement: ChatGPT and DeepL were used during the preparation and revision of both the manuscript and the answering-reviewers document for English translation, language polishing, grammar improvement, and editorial refinement. Some text expressions were generated or refined with the assistance of these tools; however, AI tools did not participate in the design of the study, data collection, data analysis, interpretation of the results, clinical reasoning, or development of the conclusions. All AI-assisted text was carefully reviewed, corrected, and approved by the authors. The authors take full responsibility for the content, accuracy, integrity, and originality of the manuscript.

Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.

Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.

CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).

Corresponding author: Gao-Song Zhang, Associate Chief Physician, Department of Gastroenterology, The People’s Hospital of Xinchang, No. 117 Gushan Middle Road, Shaoxing 312500, Zhejiang Province, China. gsongz@163.com

Received: March 9, 2026
Revised: April 9, 2026
Accepted: May 18, 2026
Published online: August 15, 2026
Processing time: 152 Days and 23.7 Hours

Core Tip

Core Tip: Gastric adenocarcinoma with predominant submucosal growth may closely mimic gastrointestinal stromal tumor. In this case, a small submucosal tumor-like gastric lesion with surface erosion and bleeding was misdiagnosed as gastrointestinal stromal tumor because endoscopic ultrasound suggested a muscularis propria-derived lesion and diagnostic endoscopic submucosal dissection biopsy showed spindle cell-like morphology. The final diagnosis of poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma was made after surgical resection. Small submucosal tumor-like lesions with mucosal abnormalities require multimodal evaluation, adequate tissue acquisition, and timely immunohistochemical assessment to reduce misdiagnosis.