Copyright
©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
Characteristics and prognosis of small bowel tumors: A retrospective study
Fang-Chen Liu, Ching-Hsiang Wang, Peng-Jen Chen, Yu-Lueng Shih, Hsuan-Hwai Lin, Jung-Chun Lin, Wei-Kuo Chang, Tsai-Yuan Hsieh, Gen-Min Lin, Tien-Yu Huang
Fang-Chen Liu, Peng-Jen Chen, Yu-Lueng Shih, Hsuan-Hwai Lin, Jung-Chun Lin, Wei-Kuo Chang, Tsai-Yuan Hsieh, Tien-Yu Huang, Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, Taipei 11490, Taiwan
Ching-Hsiang Wang, Department of Internal Medicine, Taoyuan Armed Forces General Hospital, Taoyuan 325208, Taiwan
Gen-Min Lin, Department of Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital and National Defense Medical Center, Taipei 114, Taiwan
Gen-Min Lin, Department of Medicine, Hualien Armed Forces General Hospital, Hualien 970, Taiwan
Tien-Yu Huang, Taiwan Association for the Study of Small Intestinal Diseases, Taoyuan 33305, Taiwan
Co-corresponding authors: Gen-Min Lin and Tien-Yu Huang.
Author contributions: Liu FC wrote and drafted the manuscript; Huang TY, Liu FC and Wang CH collected the data; Liu FC and Wang CH analyzed the data; Shih YL, Lin HH, Lin JC, Chang KW, Hsieh TY and Lin GM made critical revisions related to important intellectual content; Huang TY conceived, designed and refined the study, and acquired and interpreted the data. All authors were involved in the critical review of the results and have contributed to, read, and approved the final version of the manuscript. Huang TY is the member of the Taiwan Association for the Study of Small Intestinal Diseases and performed all the procedures of small bowel endoscopy in this study. In addition, Lin GM is an editorial board of the World Journal of Cardiology, a sister journal of the World Journal of Clinical Cases, who is familiar with the Journal submission guideline and provides invaluable comments on this paper. In this case, both Huang TY and Lin GM are responsible for the paper and corresponds to the future communications.
Institutional review board statement: The institutional review board of [blinded for review] approved this study (IRB No. A202005031).
Informed consent statement: Informed consents were obtained from all participants before the study.
Conflict-of-interest statement: We have no financial relationships to disclose.
Data sharing statement: The data that support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon reasonable request.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See:
https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/ Corresponding author: Tien-Yu Huang, MD, PhD, Associate Professor, Division of Gastroen
terology, Department of Internal Medicine, Tri-Service General Hospital, National Defense Medical Center, No. 325 Chenggong Road, Neihu District, Taipei 11490, Taiwan.
tienyu27@gmail.com
Received: May 9, 2024
Revised: September 2, 2024
Accepted: September 25, 2024
Published online: December 6, 2024
Processing time: 155 Days and 23.8 Hours
BACKGROUND
Small bowel tumors (SBTs) are a heterogeneous group of difficult-to-diagnose tumors that account for 2%-5% of all gastrointestinal tumors. Single-balloon enteroscopy greatly enhances the diagnosis and treatment of SBTs. However, few epidemiological studies have been conducted in Taiwan to determine the clinical profile of SBTs.
AIM
To investigate the clinical characteristics, managements and prognosis of SBTs in a medical center in Taiwan.
METHODS
The study enrolled 51 patients aged 58.9 ± 8.8 years (range, 22-93) diagnosed with SBTs from November 2009 to July 2021. We retrospectively recorded clinical characteristics, indications, endoscopic findings, pathological results, management, and outcomes for further analysis.
RESULTS
A male preponderance was observed (56.8%). The most common indications were suspected small intestinal tumors (52.9%) and obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (39.2%). The most common tumor location was the ileum (41.2%). The performance of imaging studies (P = 0.004) and the types of findings (P = 0.005) differed significantly between malignant and benign SBTs. The most frequent imaging finding was a small intestinal mass (43.1%). The top three malignant tumor types were gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), adenocarcinomas, and lymphomas. Moreover, the proportions of benign and malignant tumors were 27.5% and 72.5%, respectively. The survival rates of patients with malignant tumors in the GIST and non-GIST groups differed significantly (P = 0.015). Kaplan–Meier survival analysis showed a significant difference in survival between patients in the malignant and benign groups (P = 0.04). All patients with lymphoma underwent chemotherapy (n = 7/8, 87.5%), whereas most patients with GISTs underwent surgery (n = 13/14, 92.8%).
CONCLUSION
Patients with GISTs have a significantly higher survival rate than those with other malignant SBTs. Therefore, a large-scale nationwide study is warranted to evaluate the population-based epidemiology of SBTs.
Core Tip: Small bowel tumors (SBTs) are a heterogeneous group of difficult-to-diagnose tumors, accounting for 2%-5% of all gastrointestinal tumors. This study aimed to investigate the clinical characteristics and prognosis of SBTs detected using single-balloon enteroscopy. The most common tumor location was the ileum (41.2%). The top three malignant tumor types were gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), adenocarcinomas, and lymphomas. Moreover, the proportions of benign and malignant tumors were 27.5% and 72.5%, respectively. The survival rates of patients with malignant tumors in the GIST and non-GIST groups differed significantly. Therefore, a large-scale nationwide study is warranted to evaluate the population-based epidemiology of SBTs.
