Colonic inflammatory myofibroblastic tumours: an institutional review

Aim The aim of the study was to present the largest series of colonic inflammatory myofibroblastic tumour (C‐IMFT) in the literature so far and to provide a review of this condition. Method A retrospective review was carried out of a consecutive series of patients diagnosed with a C‐IMFT at a community‐based hospital with a specialized gastrointestinal unit between 2002 and 2011. The main outcome measures were success rate and postoperative complications. Using a set of terms we searched the PubMed database for papers published on C‐IMFT. We reviewed the data from these studies and case reports. Results There were seven patients with a histopathologically proven C‐IMFT. The patients' mean age was 39 ± 11.3 years. Four presented with clinical features of intestinal obstruction of varying severity and three with symptoms of anaemia. Complete surgical resection with end‐to‐end anastomosis was performed. The gross morphology included polypoidal myxoid tumours that served as a lead point for intussusception in two cases, a whorled mass in two and a circumferential infiltrative tumour in three. Microscopically, all tumours had typical features of IMFT with a variable expression of anaplastic lymphoma kinase (ALK‐1) and tumour‐free resection margins. All patients were well without local recurrence or metastasis at a mean follow‐up of 46.8 ± 11.9 months. Conclusion Surgical resection is effective for this rare tumour which mostly behaves in a benign manner. Our review supports the need for patients to be followed up for long periods because of the possibility of metastasis or late recurrence.