A Case of Endocrine Cell Carcinoma of the Jejunum

Takahiro Shimamura, Takeshi Kawamura, Tadaaki Noguchi, Kuniaki Sasaki, Hisao Matsuda, Muneo Kawamura and Masahiro Ikegami*

Department of Surgery, Syuhoukai Kawamura Hospital
Department of Pathology, Jikei University School of Medicine*

Abdominal computed tomography in a 49-year-old man admitted for a left abdominal mass showed a mass 15 cm in diameter not seen 10 months prior and necessitating partial excision of the jejunum with the transverse colon. The jejunal tumor had invaded the transverse colon. Histologically, the main tumor consisted of solid and nested sheets of spindle cells, but the primary tumor was 1.8 cm after partial adenocarcinoma. The definitive diagnosis with immunohistological study was endocrine cell carcinoma. He has remained disease-free in the year since surgery, with adjuvant chemotherapy. An analysis of 13 cases in the Japanese literature showed that endocrine cell carcinoma has extremely high malignancy and a dismal prognosis with distant metastasis or other organ invasion in all cases. To establish effective diagnosis and therapy for this disease, further cases must be accumulated.

Key words
endocrine cell carcinoma, jejunum, carcinoma of the small bowel

Reprint requests
Takahiro Shimamura Department of Surgery, Syuhoukai Kawamura Hospital
327 Nakajima, Fuji, 416-0907 JAPAN

Accepted
March 26, 2008

To read the PDF file you will need Abobe Reader installed on your computer.