[Carcinoid tumor of the stomach--aspects of surgical therapy]

Carcinoid tumors of the stomach are rare (0.4% of all malignancies of the stomach). Long-lasting hypergastrinemia, most often due to chronic atrophic gastritis, leads to hyperplasia of ECL-cells in the gastric fundic mucosa with consequent dysplasia or neoplasia. Between 1974 and 1988 four patients underwent surgical treatment after diagnosis of a gastric carcinoid tumor. One patient was treated by local excision, two by subtotal resection and one patient underwent complete gastrectomy. None of the patients had local or distant metastases or died in the follow-up period due to tumor progression. The different approaches to surgical therapy are discussed.