linitis plastics

I have a friend who had terrible problems with his stomach for a long time. After all, his doctor concluded his problems seemed to be more serious then they thought. It was condition called linitis plastica. I have no idea what it could be, and I do not understand what it does mean. Can you tell me anything about this condition to help me understand his pains?

Linitis plastica is the type of gastric malignancy, which is definitely serious problem. Gastric carcinoma most often appears as a mass in mucosa of gastric. However, sometimes, gastric carcinoma only infiltrates the lumen of the stomach. Then, only endoscopic finding is nondistensible stomach with a narrowed lumen. This special condition has been known as linitis plastica. A linitis plastica refers to a leather bottle stomach, and it describes a stomach that has a gastric carcinoma, which is morphologically an infiltrating carcinoma. Infiltrating carcinomas of the stomach tend to occur in younger patients and carry a poorer prognosis than other morphological types of carcinomas. Infiltrating carcinomas cause a leather bottle stomach because of spreading widely beneath the stomach mucosa. This pattern of growth causes thickening and stiffening of the stomach wall. As a result, the stomach also has a reduced capacity, and resultant stiff-walled, smaller capacity stomach is much akin to a linitis plastica.