Small bowel cancers diagnosed by device-assisted enteroscopy at a U.S. referral center: a five-year experience

Primary malignant neoplasms of the small bowel comprise only 1-3% of all gastrointestinal malignancies. Small bowel cancers pose a significant diagnostic challenge. The recent development of video capsule endoscopy (VCE) and device-assisted enteroscopy (DAE) have greatly facilitated evaluation of the small bowel.

We retrospectively reviewed all cases referred to a single U.S. center from September 2004 to July 2009 to determine the frequency and type of primary small bowel cancers found on DAE.

The charts of 555 patients who underwent a total of 805 procedures (768 double-balloon and 37 rotational enteroscopies) were reviewed. A total of 20 patients with small bowel cancers were diagnosed. There was no gender predominance (ten men and ten women). The average age at presentation was 66 ± 11 years, essentially identical to our overall population. We identified eight neuroendocrine tumors, five adenocarcinomas, four GIST, two lymphomas, and one poorly differentiated carcinoma.

Small bowel cancer is a rare but important finding on DAE. The per-patient incidence in our series was 3.6%. A recent multicenter Japanese series showing a higher incidence of small bowel tumors (14%) included polyposis syndrome patients and benign lesions, which were excluded from our study. The high frequency of neuroendocrine tumors in our series was also in contrast to the Japanese series, where lymphoma and GIST were more common. This may reflect a difference between our referral populations. Most of our patients underwent surgery as a consequence of these findings, underscoring the importance of identifying these tumors. DAE provides direct endoscopic access to the small bowel and is a valuable tool in the diagnosis of small bowel cancers.