Development of Carcinoma in Regional Enteritis

To the Editor .—I should like to add a case to the series of carcinoma in regional enteritis reported by Saeed et al ( Arch Surg 108:376, 1974). The patient was a 50-year-old white man who developed crampy hypogastric pain and fever in January 1972. A barium enema showed a narrowing of the distal part of the ileum. He was treated nonoperatively, but had a similar episode two weeks later and underwent laparotomy, where the gross appearance of regional ileitis was found. No resection or biopsy was done. The patient was admitted to St. Barnabas Medical Center on May 1, 1972, with abdominal pain. He had a distended abdomen with dilated small bowel loops on roentgenogram. On May 8, 1972, he underwent resection of the distal part of the ileum and cecum. The pathology report described regional enteritis of the terminal ileum with an infiltrating adenocarcinoma arising from a villous adenoma