Current Advance in Small Bowel Tumors

carcinoma, 15% lymphoma, and 7% gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST). Metastatic small intestinal cancers are from skin melanoma, colorectum, prostate, lung and breast. Multiple factors influence on the relative infrequency of tumorigenesis in the small bowel; rapid small bowel (SB) transit time, a high concentration of the enzyme detoxifying carcinogen, 5 abundant lymphoid tissue and high levels of IgA, alkaline pH and the lower bacterial load, and rapid turnover of the intestinal mucosa. onsidering the literatures in the past were written before the introduction of newer small intestinal investigation modalities, the real incidence of small intestinal tumor may be higher than we had known. Recently we reported the overall frequency of small intestinal tumors as 4.3% in Korean national cohort of wireless capsule endoscopy (WCE) which was performed with indications including obscure gastrointestinal bleeding (OGIB), abdominal pain, weight loss, diarrhea, and so on. Similarly in a recent large scale European study, WCE revealed tumors in small bowel in 2.4%. This raises the possibility of increasing incidence of SB tumor in clinical practice with advance of new diagnostic technology.