title: Primary small bowel malignancy: a 10-year clinical experience from Southern Taiwan.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  The difficulty in establishing early definitive diagnosis and treatment of primary small bowel malignancy (PSBM) is a challenge for clinicians. This study aimed to analyze the symptomatology, diagnosis and outcomes of PSBM.
  
  
  METHODS
  A retrospective chart review study was conducted on 49 patients who underwent surgical treatment for PSBM at a tertiary hospital between May 2000 and January 2010.
  
  
  RESULTS
  The patients with PSBM had non-specific clinical symptoms. Major diagnostic tools in the current study were computed tomography (CT) (n=40), gastrointestinal series radiography (n=10), angiography (n=5), double-balloon enteroscopy (n=3), gastroduodenoscopy (n=2), magnetic resonance imaging (n=1) and exploratory laparotomy (n=8). Gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST) was the most common PSBM (n=21), followed by lymphoma (n=14), adenocarcinoma (n=8), leiomyosarcoma (n=3) and sarcoma (n=3). The overall 5-year cumulative survival rate of the patients with PSBM was 57.1% with a mean survival time of 31.8±7.8 months. The 5-year cumulative survival rates for the different PSBMs were 79.1%, 46.9% and 33.2% for GIST, adenocarcinomas and lymphomas, respectively (p=0.087).
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  CT is very useful in detecting PSBM. Poor prognosis in PSBM patients detected by CT or angiography could be the result of delayed diagnosis prior to the procedure.
authors.forename: Chung-Yueh
authors.initials: CY
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Seng-Kee
authors.initials: SK
authors.lastname: Chuah
authors.forename: Shih-Ho
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Wei-Chen
authors.initials: WC
authors.lastname: Tai
authors.forename: Chih-Chi
authors.initials: CC
authors.lastname: Wang
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D003952:Diagnostic Imaging; D058582:Double-Balloon Enteroscopy; D055088:Early Detection of Cancer; D016099:Endoscopy, Gastrointestinal; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D007414:Intestinal Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000473:pathology / Q000601:surgery*; D007421:Intestine, Small; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D015996:Survival Rate; D013624:Taiwan / Q000453:epidemiology