Fever of unknown origin as a presentation of colonic inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor in a 36-year-old female: A case report

Abstract

Inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor is a rare type of lesion that mimics malignancy and has various clinical manifestations. The current study presents a 36-year-old female with a colonic mass, which closely resembled a stromal tumor during imaging. The patient experienced intermittent fever and slight abdominal pain for one month. The fever remained at ≤38.5°C until the day of surgery. The patient underwent a right hemicolectomy and the preoperative fever disappeared and did not recur until the patient was discharged.

Keywords: colonic tumor; fever of unknown origin; gastrointestinal stromal tumor; inflammatory myofibroblastic tumor.

Figure 1

Positron emission tomography/computed tomography scan of the abdomen revealed a large solid mass with hypermetabolism of fluorodeoxyglucose. The mass is highlighted in yellow and was close to the liver.

Figure 2

Tumor was principally composed of spindle or plump cells that exhibited round or elongated nuclei, prominent nucleoli with hypercellularity and mild nuclear atypism (stain, hematoxylin and eosin; magnification, ×100).