[Duodenal adenocarcinoma]

The authors report 4 cases of primitive malignant duodenal tumors. Adenocarcinoma of the duodenum is a rare tumor and its clinical symptoms are various and not specific. The most common picture is the occlusive stenotical one, where complications are numerous and frequent. The radiographical pictures are represented either by a short neoplastic stenosis or by lacunose aspects or by strictures of the lumen between two normal segments. Endoscopy allows biopsy and therefore helps to secure histological diagnosis. The prognosis of duodenal cancer is severe as diagnosis is late. The possible therapy is surgical and consists either in palliative interventions (digestive and biliary derivations) or in the radical ones (duodenocephalus-pancreasectomy or segmentary duodenectomy). In order to improve patients survival, which is rare and till 5 years maximum, early diagnosis is necessary.