Small Intestinal Cancers

Small bowel tumors are extremely rare and account for only 2% of all gastrointestinal malignancies. Approximately one-third of the tumors are benign and two-thirds are malignant at the time of diagnosis. Adenocarcinoma is the most common malignancy accounting for 40% of primary small bowel neoplasms. Other tumors are as follows: neuroendocrine tumors (carcinoid), 20--40%; lymphomas, 14%; and sarcomas, 11--13%. Small bowel tumors are usually asymptomatic in the early stages, but eventually patients develop symptoms due to progression of the disease. The most frequent presenting symptoms are abdominal pain, nausea, vomiting, and intestinal obstruction. The diagnostic strategies for detecting small tumors include conventional noninvasive imaging modalities (small bowel barium series, enteroclysis, CT scan, and MRI), as well as endoscopic modalities (push enteroscopy, double-balloon enteroscopy, and video-capsule endoscopy). The later newer techniques had improved the diagnostic accuracy of detecting small bowel tumors. This edition first published 2013