Gardner's syndrome in a 40-year-old woman: successful treatment of locally aggressive desmoid tumors with cytotoxic chemotherapy.
BACKGROUND
Desmoid tumors that present as a part of Gardener's syndrome can present very difficult management problems.


METHODS
We report a case of intra-abdominal desmoid tumor causing distal small bowel obstruction that complicated the management of a more proximal enterocutaneous fistula from the jejunum. After failure of more conventional management options including imatinib, the patient's disease responded to doxorubicin and ifosfamide. The response resolved the bowel obstruction and allowed small intestinal resection to resolve the enterocutaneous fistula.


CONCLUSIONS
Systemic cytotoxic therapy with doxorubicin and ifosfamide can be useful for patients with complications from intra-abdominal desmoid tumor.
Bhama
Prabhat K
PK
Department of Surgery, Division of Endocrine Surgery, University of Michigan, Ann Arbor, Michigan, USA. pbhama@u.washington.edu
Chugh
Rashmi
R
Baker
Laurence H
LH
Doherty
Gerard M
GM