Carcinoid tumors usually originate in the gastrointestinal tract, but in rare instances they may arise in other organs. A patient with severe tricuspid and pulmonary regurgitation because of carcinoid syndrome successfully underwent double valve replacement using bioprostheses. The patient was finally diagnosed with carcinoid heart disease from an isolated ovarian carcinoid cancer. The diagnosi...

BACKGROUND Serotonin is the principal endocrine product of carcinoid tumors, but simultaneously increased production of catecholamines has been described in these tumors. As it is not clear whether these tumors contain specific enzymes for catecholamine synthesis, we aimed to detect catecholamine-synthesizing enzymes [tyrosine hydroxylase (TH), dopamine-beta-hydroxylase (DBH), and phenylethanol...

BACKGROUND Carcinoid tumors of the duodenum are rare, and their natural history has not been defined. Consequently, there is no consensus on the optimal extent of surgical treatment. METHODS The authors reviewed the records of all patients with primary carcinoid tumors of the duodenum treated at their institution from 1969 through 2004. Patients with primary periampullary tumors and gastrinom...

Gastro-intestinal carcinoids are slow growing tumors arising from enterochromaffin or Kulchitsky cells. Their clinical presentation depends on what combination of bioactive substances is secreted. Midgut carcinoid can present with the carcinoid syndrome in the presence of liver metastases. Its most typical clinical manifestations include cutaneous flushing and diarrhea. A nonspecific biochemica...

PURPOSE Effective systemic therapy options for carcinoid tumors are lacking. We conducted in vitro studies and a phase II clinical trial to explore the activity of imatinib in carcinoid tumors. EXPERIMENTAL DESIGN Cells of the human bronchial carcinoid cell line NCI-H727 and the human pancreatic carcinoid cell line BON-1 were treated with increasing concentrations of imatinib using standard p...

OBJECTIVE The aim of this study was to analyze trends in a variety of prognostic factors for neuroendocrine lung carcinomas through analysis of 2 groups of surgically treated patients. PATIENTS AND METHODS Group A contained the first 361 patients, treated between 1980 and 1997. That group was analyzed retrospectively and contained 261 patients with typical carcinoid tumors, 43 with atypical c...

Bronchial typical carcinoid tumors are neuroendocrine bronchopulmonary tumors with a low-grade malignancy, and an atypical carcinoid is an intermediate form of these tumors. There is a lack of knowledge on the optimal treatment for these tumors. The surgical treatment of choice consists of a lobectomy supplemented by dissection. The benefit of chemotherapy and radiotherapy is unclear. Targeted ...