Diagnosis of Terminal Ileum Carcinoid Tumor Despite Prior Screening Colonoscopies—Making the Case for Routine Terminal Ileoscopy During Colon Cancer Surveillance: A Case Report

Document Type

Abstract

Publication Date

10-1-2019

Publication Title

The American Journal of Gastroenterology

Volume

114

First page number:

S1428

Last page number:

S1429

Abstract

The term carcinoid is generally applied to well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumors originating in the tubular digestive tract, lungs or rare primary sites. Small bowel neuroendocrine tumors may be asymptomatic at presentation and found incidentally. Among symptomatic patients, 40% experience abdominal pain as an initial symptom. The pain is usually vague, nonspecific and misconstrued to represent irritable bowel syndrome for years before a diagnosis is made. A diagnosis may be delayed, or even missed, due to terminal ileum visualization not being a routine part of screening colonoscopy, a result of the perceived difficulty of the maneuver. We present the case of a female patient who was diagnosed with carcinoid tumor only after she became symptomatic despite having routine colonoscopy screening prior.

Disciplines

Gastroenterology | Oncology

Language

English

UNLV article access

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