Published online Oct 7, 2014. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i37.13625
Revised: April 1, 2014
Accepted: May 29, 2014
Published online: October 7, 2014
Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors are usually treated by surgical resection. We herein report two cases of intra-abdominal inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors that were unresectable and underwent spontaneous regression without any treatment. Our case report and literature review show that regression is more common in the middle-aged and older male populations. Abdominal discomfort and fever were the most common symptoms, but the majority of patients had no obvious physical signs. There was no specific indicator for diagnosis. The majority of the lesions regressed within 3 mo and nearly all of the masses completely resolved within 1 year. We conclude that the clinical characteristics of inflammatory myofibroblastic tumors are variable and, accordingly, the disease needs to be subdivided and treated on an individual basis. Surgery is always the first-line treatment; however, for those masses assessed as unresectable, conservative therapy with intense follow-up should be considered.
Core tip: This article reports two rare cases involving the spontaneous regression of an unresectable intra-abdominal inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor (IMT) and summarizes the clinical characteristics of all published cases. The clinical characteristics of IMT are not clear and the treatment is controversial. By analyzing published papers, we discovered some common features of the disease and potential reasons for this unusual phenomenon. Our findings may be useful for the clinical diagnosis and treatment of IMT.