Histochemistry is the golden standard in the diagnosis of carcinosarcomas

The patient in the study was the first case of gastric carcinosarcoma obtained in this part of the world . The patient was admitted by Dr. Tomislav Randjelovic as surgeon and Dr. Branka Filipovic as gastroenterologist.

The operation was performed by Dr. Randjelovic and his team; the anatomical and patoanatomical evaluation of macroscopic and microscopic features of the tumor were performed by Dr. Babic, Dr. Cemerikic and Dr. Filipovic.

Carcinosarcomas are very rare malignancies in the Western Balkans. Moreover, our case is, to the best of our knowledge, the first ever reported . It is important never to reject the possibility of the appearance of carcinosarcoma in differential diagnosis of the clinical manifestations described in our paper, which appeared to be unspecific and could potentially be connected with numerous diseases of the stomach.

Their case shows that histochemistry is the golden standard in the diagnosis of carcinosarcomas: epithelial component expressed positivity for cytokeratin 18, epithelial membranous antigen (EMA), and carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA). Chromogranin A positive epithelial cells could also be observed. The mesenchymal component had intensive staining for vimentin, although neither muscular nor neural differentiation could be found. No Helicobacter pylori was seen.