Pernicious anemia and gastric carcinoid tumor: case report and review

Gastric carcinoid tumors are being recognized increasingly in patients with pernicious anemia. Such tumors occur in the presence of achlorhydria, chronic atrophic gastritis involving the fundus and body of the stomach, hypergastrinemia, and enterochromaffin-like cell hyperplasia-dysplasia. A 74-yr-old man with a 6-yr history of pernicious anemia who developed a solitary gastric carcinoid tumor of the corpus is described. The patient presented with hematemesis and was treated endoscopically. A total of 136 patients with pernicious anemia-associated gastric carcinoids have been described in the literature. Their clinical characteristics are also reviewed.