Peutz-jeghers Syndrome with Metastasizing Duodenal Carcinoma.

EDITORIAL SYNOPSIS Since interest was first aroused in the Peutz-Jeghers syndrome there have been conflicting views as to the frequency with which malignant change occurs in the polyps found in the small intestine, and this has been due to the difficulty of interpreting the histological structure of the polypi. Many now feel that in this syndrome these lesions are hamartomas and that the apparent early malignant change is due to epithelial elements being caught up in the interlacing bands of smooth muscle. The case recorded here may well be the first fully documented example of carcinomatous change in a polyp in the Peutz-Jeghers syndrome, a metastasis having occurred in a regional lymph gland and the patient dying 15 months after the operation.