Small bowel adenocarcinoma as a complication of celiac disease: clinical and diagnostic features

Small bowel adenocarcinoma (SBA) is a rare neoplasm, which can occur in a sporadic form or can be associated with a number of predisposing conditions such as hereditary syndromes and immune-mediated intestinal disorders, e.g. celiac disease (CD). However, the features of SBA in the context of CD remain only partly understood. This study was aimed to show the main clinical features, diagnostic procedures and management options of SBA cases detected in a large cohort of celiac patients diagnosed in a single tertiary care center.

We retrospectively reviewed all the SBA cases detected in a cohort of 770 CD patients (599 females; F / M ratio: 3.5:1; median age at diagnosis 36 years, range 18-80 years), diagnosed at the Celiac Disease Referral Center of our University Hospital (Bologna, Italy) from January 1995 to December 2014.

Five (0.65%) out of our 770 CD patients developed SBA. All of them were female with a mean age of 53 years (range 38-72 years). SBA, diagnosed at the same time of the CD diagnosis in three cases, was localized in the jejunum in four cases and in the duodenum in one case. The clinical presentation of SBA was characterized by intestinal sub-occlusion in two cases, while the predominant manifestation of the remaining three cases was iron deficiency anaemia, abdominal pain and acute intestinal obstruction, respectively. All the patients were referred to surgery, and three cases with advanced stage neoplasia were also treated with chemotherapy. The overall survival rate at 5 years was 80%.

Although in a limited series, herein presented CD-related SBA cases were characterized by a younger age of onset, a higher prevalence in female gender and a better overall survival compared to sporadic, Crohn- and hereditary syndrome-related SBA.