Abstract
Small bowel cancer is a rare, gastrointestinal cancer originating from the small intestines. Carcinogenesis in the jejunum, the middle segment of the small intestines, occurs less commonly than in the duodenum and ileum. Despite the increasing incidences globally, the cancer is still poorly understood, which includes lack of pathological understanding and etiological reasoning, as it seems to exhibit both similarities and differences with other types of cancers. A 76-year-old Asian man was presented with abdominal pain, which was later attributed to an adenocarcinoma in the jejunum. Initial immunoreactive staining results found no connections to colorectal cancer. The microsatellite instability test was further examined by immunohistochemistry which revealed them to be wild-type. From our exome-capture sequencing results, mutations of WRN may be important as they represent the only genetic defect in this jejunal cancer. The patient has since undergone surgical resection of his cancer and is currently being treated with chemotherapy. The pathology, genomic markers, and treatments are described along with literature review.
Highlights
Small bowel cancer is a relatively rare type of cancer when compared to other gastrointestinal diseases, while having glaring similarities to the said malignancies
GISTs are commonly found in the stomach and are infrequent in the colon; GISTs located in the small intestine are typically found in the duodenum as it is the closest to the stomach. 30% of all GISTs occur in the duodenum, with most of the remaining percentage in the stomach [5]
The traits of small bowel cancer vary from other gastrointestinal cancers
Summary
Small bowel cancer is a relatively rare type of cancer when compared to other gastrointestinal diseases (comprising 2% of all GI cancers), while having glaring similarities to the said malignancies. The cancer tends to show similarities to malignancies originating from a proximal organ (e.g. stomach and large intestines), explaining the increased rarity of jejunal cancer, as it is surrounded only by its small intestinal counterparts. In the United States, African Americans are twice as likely to be diagnosed with small bowel cancer as compared to Caucasians. Like many other types of cancer, genetic and environmental risks represent susceptibility factors to small intestine cancer. Though the limitations in predicting small bowel cancer preempt preventative medicine, chemotherapy can be used to slow the tumor growth albeit to a lesser extent; for example, chemotherapeutic drugs for adenocarcinomas in the stomach have been found to be less effective on adenocarcinomas. Surgical treatment remains the most effective way to treat small bowel cancer, increasing the survivability considerably and eliminating obstructions
Sign-in/Register to view highlights & summary Sign-in/Register to access full text options 
Free) 
Talk to us
Join us for a 30 min session where you can share your feedback and ask us any queries you have
Schedule a call
