Gastrointestinal carcinoid tumors: 10-year experience of a general surgical department

Gastrointestinal (GI) carcinoids are rare neuroendocrine tumors of great interest because of the multitude of the peptide hormones they produce, their clinical manifestations, the carcinoid syndrome they cause, their biologic behavior, and the methods of their surgical and adjuvant treatment. In this retrospective study, 25 patients with carcinoid tumors admitted and surgically treated in our department during the last 10 years are presented. Most of the cases were located in the ileum (n = 8) and appendix (n = 12). The remaining cases were located in the rectum (n = 2), stomach (n = 1), duodenum (n = 1), and ileocecal valve (n = 1). After tumor resection and postoperative treatment, mainly with somatostatin analogs, our patients had a good recovery, and only five deaths were reported during follow-up. Carcinoids, despite the fact that they are usually silent and diagnosed with advanced stage, have good prognosis and offer, after effective treatment, long survival.