Adenocarcinoma and other small intestinal malignancies

Abstract

Despite the enormous surface area of the small intestinal mucosa and the rapid turnover of the enterocytes, malignancies of the small bowel are uncommon. Of the more than 250,000 digestive system cancers projected for diagnosis in the United States in 2003, only an estimated 5,300 were small intestinal malignancies. There is a slight predominance of men diagnosed with these tumors. An estimated 1,100 Americans died of small intestinal malignancies in 2003. Because of the low incidence of small bowel cancers and the common occurrence of four distinct histologic types, namely adenocarcinoma, lymphoma, gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST), and carcinoid tumor, even major clinical centers have limited experience in treating patients with these diseases. As a result, controlled data evaluating treatment variables and other aspects of small intestinal malignancies are virtually nonexistent. © 2006 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc.