[Malignant neoplasia of the small intestine. Apropos of 7 cases. Clinical discussion and review of the literature].

The authors report seven cases of primary malignancies of the small intestine observed and treated between 1989 and 1995 at the First Surgical Division of Treviglio Hospital. Three patients were affected by adenocarcinomas (two involving the duodenum and one the jejunum), two patients had non-endocrine carcinoid tumors of the ileum, one presented a jejunal liposarcoma and one a lymphoma of the ileum. Four patients died (respectively at three months, 15 months, 18 months and five years after surgical intervention). Three patients are still alive. The early clinical features of these malignancies are typically vague and non specific and for this reason the disease is often diagnosed at an advanced stage. The prognosis of these lesions is generally poor owing to the diffusion of the disease at the time of diagnosis. In fact these neoplasms are preoperatively identified only in 27-72%. The percentage of surgical removal ranges between 65 and 80% according to the recent literature. This study is aimed at analysing the clinical and pathologic characteristics of the observed cases and the difficulties of the diagnostic procedure. The adopted surgical techniques and the outcome of the operative treatment are also examined.