Pathology of Gastrointestinal Cancer

An exhaustive discussion of the pathologic features of neoplasms of the alimentary tract would require a text twice the size of this entire volume. The organs of the alimentary tract are among the most frequent site of origin of malignancies in the human body (SILVERBERG 1985; ROSAI 1981). Thus, the diversity of malignant new growths found in this systemis great, and virtually every type of neoplasm that has been identified has been described as arising from the alimentary tract, or involving it secondarily. For this reason, we will discuss only the most important malignancies below, and the lesser ones will be mentioned only cursorily for completeness. While there may be reasons to disagree with any classification, we have generally organized the discussion to follow that of the Histological Classification of Tumours of the World Health Organization (OOTA and SOBIN 1977; MORSON and SOBIN 1976; GIBSON and SOBIN 1978). In keeping with the remainder of this volume, we have left out discussion of tumors of the mouth, oropharynx, and salivary glands, but have included discussion of important tumors of the liver and biliary tree and those of the exocrine and endocrine pancreas.