title: Surgical treatment of giant mesenteric fibromatosis presenting as a gastrointestinal stromal tumor: a case report.
abstract: BACKGROUND
  Intra-abdominal fibromatosis, usually located at the mesenteric level, is a locally invasive tumor of fibrous origin, with no ability to metastasize, but a tendency to recur. Certain non-typical cases of intra-abdominal fibromatosis with involvement of the bowel wall can be misdiagnosed because of their different biological behavior.
  
  
  METHODS
  We describe the case of a 64-year-old Caucasian man presenting with mesenteric fibromatosis and involvement of the bowel wall, who was treated surgically. The macroscopic and microscopic appearance of the lesion mimicked a gastrointestinal stromal tumor, a tumor with potential malignant behavior.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  It is essential to make an early and correct diagnosis in such equivocal cases, so that the appropriate treatment can be chosen and suitable patients admitted to clinical trials if appropriate. New and reliable criteria for discriminating between intra-abdominal fibromatosis and gastrointestinal stromal tumor should be proposed and established because novel sophisticated therapeutic strategies have been introduced in the international literature.
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgery, Athens Navy Hospital, 70 Deinokratous Street, 11521, Athens, Greece. aris.80@hotmail.com.
authors.forename: Christos N
authors.initials: CN
authors.lastname: Stoidis
authors.forename: Basileios G
authors.initials: BG
authors.lastname: Spyropoulos
authors.forename: Evangelos P
authors.initials: EP
authors.lastname: Misiakos
authors.forename: Christos K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Fountzilas
authors.forename: Panorea P
authors.initials: PP
authors.lastname: Paraskeva
authors.forename: Constantine I
authors.initials: CI
authors.lastname: Fotiadis