Histopathological aspects of pulmonary carcinoid tumors

Pulmonary carcinoid tumors are considered low grade malignant tumors, arising from neuroendocrine cells from bronchial mucosa. The small cell proliferation is arranged in small nests or trabeculae, the nuclei are round to oval with finely dispersed chromatin, indistinct nucleoli, small amount of cytoplasm, indistinct borders. Problems of differential diagnosis could appear in distinction with others malignancies like adenocarcinomas, squamous cell carcinomas, lymphomas and others neuroendocrine tumors, especially in the different prognosis and therapeutic approach. We described 15 cases of pulmonary carcinoid tumors diagnosticated by morphologic and immunohistochemical methods.