Editorial: (Lynch et al) Rare diseases of the digestive system (case studies/publication)

Editorial: Rare diseases of the digestive system
 


... It appears clear to the editors that rare diseases involving the digestive system may have significant impact on the individual patients, public health, medical education and scientific advancement. There are currently 7,000 rare diseases identified [5, 17]. CD and Lynch syndrome are just two examples where case reports eventually led to critical scientific and clinical research findings, and benefited numerous patients. Many rare diseases, however, are poorly studied. Their etiopathogenesis, clinical presentation, diagnosis, management and prognosis are poorly defined. We therefore believe that there is an under-recognized need for more reports and studies on rare or uncommon diseases. A decision of accepting case reports in American Journal of Digestive Disease is thus made to meet such a need. While many journals have started eliminating the category of case report, we hope that this journal will offer a platform for publication of rare, yet interesting, cases with exceptional educational values. We are particularly interested in publishing cases with unique clinical, pathological and molecular features, ideally exceedingly rare yet clinically important. It is our hope that the publications will increase the awareness of rare diseases and thus strengthen the world-wide efforts in combating these diseases [5, 18].

We hope our decision of publishing case reports will contribute to the effort