Small-bowel tumors
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Small-bowel tumors account for 1 to 5% of GI tumors.
Benign tumors include leiomyomas, lipomas, neurofibromas, and fibromas. All may cause abdominal distention, pain, bleeding, diarrhea or, if obstruction develops, vomiting. Polyps are not as common as in the colon.
Adenocarcinoma, a malignant tumor, is uncommon. Usually it arises in the duodenum or proximal jejunum and causes minimal symptoms. In patients with Crohn’s disease, the tumors tend to occur distally and in bypassed or inflamed loops of bowel; adenocarcinoma occurs more often in Crohn’s disease of the small bowel than in Crohn’s disease of the colon.
Primary malignant lymphoma arising in the ileum may produce a long, rigid segment. Small-bowel lymphomas arise often in long-standing untreated celiac sprue.
Carcinoid tumors occur most often in the small bowel, particularly the ileum, and the appendix, and in these locations are often malignant. Multiple tumors occur in 50% of cases. Of those > 2 cm in diameter, 80% have metastasized locally or to the liver by the time of operation. About 30% of small-bowel carcinoids cause obstruction, pain, bleeding, or the carcinoid syndrome. Treatment is surgical resection; repeat operations may be required.
Kaposi’s sarcoma , first described as a disease of elderly Jewish and Italian men, occurs in an aggressive form in Africans, transplant recipients, and AIDS patients, who have GI tract involvement 40 to 60% of the time. Lesions may occur anywhere in the GI tract but usually in the stomach, small bowel, or distal colon. GI lesions usually are asymptomatic, but bleeding, diarrhea, protein-losing enteropathy, and intussusception may occur. A second primary intestinal malignancy occurs in ≤ 20% of patients; most often it is lymphocytic leukemia, non-Hodgkin’s lymphoma, Hodgkin’s disease, or adenocarcinoma of the GI tract. Treatment depends on the cell type and location and extent of the lesions.
Diagnosis and Treatment
Enteroclysis is probably the most common study for mass lesions of the small bowel. Push endoscopy of the small bowel with an enteroscope may be used to visualize and biopsy tumors. Capsule video endoscopy can help identify small-bowel lesions, particularly bleeding sites; a swallowed capsule transmits 2 images/sec to an external recorder. The capsule is not useful in the stomach or colon because it tumbles in these larger organs.
Treatment is surgical resection. Electrocautery, thermal obliteration, or laser phototherapy at the time of enteroscopy or surgery may be an alternative to resection.
K. Ozaki, T. Yamagami, K. Nomura and I. Narama
Research Institute of Drug Safety, Setsunan University, Hirakata, Osaka, Japan (KO, IN); and Marupi Lifetech Co., Ltd., Ikeda, Osaka, Japan (TY, KN)
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