PRIMARY tumors of the duodenum occur infrequently, and of the tumors of the duodenum the leiomyosarcoma is the rarest. Von Salis in 1920 reported on the first patient with duodenal leiomyosarcoma.1 Weinstein and Roberts in 1952 summarized the literature and found 28 cases, including 1 which they had reported.2 Because of the rarity of this disease, the fact that there has been no reported successful removal of such a tumor from the fourth portion of the duodenum, and the fact that there are no published data to indicate that any of the patients with leiomyosarcoma of the duodenum have survived operative removal by more than three years, it was thought that the following case should be reported. The patient survived removal of a leiomyosarcoma of the fourth portion of the duodenum and lived for three years and eight months.
Weinstein and Roberts related that a typical history is