Pulmonary carcinoid tumors: Report on 19 cases

Nineteen cases of pulmonary carcinoid tumors, three of which showed clinically malignant behavior, are reported. The diagnostic and therapeutic possibilities are discussed. Diagnosis is sometimes possible on radiologic examination, when the clinical behavior is not yet malignant. However, these tumors are frequently mistaken for malignant heteroplasias during the diagnostic work-up so that the postoperative histologic examination results are sometimes surprising. The clinical postoperative course is favorable in the majority of cases, and in the eight cases we were able to follow up for more than five years, there was only one recurrence. Although pulmonary carcinoids are histologically similar to intestinal carcinoids, and like the latter are abundantly vascularized, they are only rarely accompanied by the carcinoid syndrome, which is often observed in the intestinal form.