A case of carotid body tumor concomitant with carcinoid tumor

Neuroendocrine tumors typically fall into two broad categories: those of epithelial origin and those of neural derivation. The former group includes carcinoid tumors and the latter includes paraganglioma. Although paraganglioma and carcinoid tumor have different biologic behaviors, their overlapping histological appearance can pose diagnostic challenges. Carcinoid tumors are rare, slow-growing neuroendocrine tumors arising from the enterochromaffin cells disseminated throughout the gastrointestinal and bronchopulmonary systems. Carotid body tumor is the most common type of extra-adrenal paraganglioma. Paraganglioma tends to grow slowly but can compress adjacent vessel and nerve. A 63-year-old woman showed huge mass extending from carotid body to skull base, encircling internal and external carotid arteries on magnetic resonance image. Surgical removal of carotid body tumor was done after embolization procedure. Postoperative histopathologic examination and immunohistochemical analysis were consistent with paraganglioma concomitant with carcinoid tumor in carotid body. Primary cervical carcinoid tumor is extremely rare, and to the best of our knowledge, this is the first case of concomitant existence of paraganglioma and carcinoid tumor in carotid body.