[A case of primary early duodenal cancer]

Reported is a case of a suprapapillary primary early duodenal cancer in a 50 year old male patient who had had a hemicolectomy 15 years earlier for a colon cancer. The patient had undergone upper gastrointestinal endoscopy during a mass screening for abnormalities in the gastro-intestinal tract, and a slightly depressed lesion of the IIa + IIc type, 25 x 20 mm in diameter, was discovered accidentally at the superior duodenal flexure. The subsequent biopsy revealed a well differentiated tubular adenocarcinoma. Thus, the patient underwent a subtotal gastrectomy and a partial duodenectomy with a lymph node dissection. The histology of the resected specimen was the same as that of the biopsy, but only the mucosa was involved. Adenomatous lesions of the colon are known to occasionally accompany upper gastro-intestinal tumor, so that periodic gastro-intestinal scrutiny follow-ups are mandatory.