title: Intussusception in gestational choriocarcinoma (not histologically proven), resolving spontaneously with chemotherapy.
abstract: We present a rare case of advanced gestational choriocarcinoma with small bowel metastatic involvement and intussusception, which presented acutely as a lower gastrointestinal bleed with symptomatic anaemia and haemoglobin 3.8 g/dL in a young woman. A diagnosis of gestational choriocarcinoma was made without biopsy, using a combination of clinical history, isolated elevated human chorionic gonadotropin markers of 77,000 IU/mL and radiological findings. Surgical intervention was too high risk due to the presence of active bleeding and increased vascularity surrounding the intussusception. Owing to the highly responsive nature of gestational choriocarcinoma to chemotherapy, frontline chemotherapy alone was used to reduce the size of the metastatic small bowel deposits, with subsequent resolution of the bleeding and intussusception. This is the first time chemotherapy alone has been used to successfully resolve small bowel intussusception secondary to metastatic choriocarcinoma that has been documented according to PubMed searches.
authors.affiliation: NHS, London, UK.
authors.forename: Anisha
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Ramessur
authors.affiliation: NHS, London, UK.
authors.forename: Mark
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Openshaw
authors.affiliation: Department of Oncology, Charing Cross Hospital, London, UK.
authors.forename: Naveed
authors.initials: N
authors.lastname: Sarwar
mesh_terms: D015746:Abdominal Pain / Q000209:etiology; D000328:Adult; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols; D001803:Blood Transfusion / Q000379:methods*; D002822:Choriocarcinoma / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology*; D002945:Cisplatin; D005047:Etoposide; D005260:Female; D005440:Fluid Therapy / Q000379:methods; D006471:Gastrointestinal Hemorrhage / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology* / Q000628:therapy; D006801:Humans; D007443:Intussusception / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D007580:Jejunal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology* / Q000556:secondary; D008551:Melena / Q000209:etiology / Q000473:pathology*; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D014594:Uterine Neoplasms / Q000150:complications / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000473:pathology*
chemical_list: D005047:Etoposide; D002945:Cisplatin