Carcinoid tumors of the gastrointestinal tract: a 44-year experience.

We retrospectively studied 112 patients treated for gastrointestinal carcinoid tumors between 1942 and 1986. The three most common sites were jejunum-ileum (27%), rectum (27%), and appendix (21%), followed by colon (12%), duodenum (9%), and stomach (4%). Seventy-five percent of patients had localized disease, primarily in the rectum and appendix. Colon and small bowel tumors were often manifested with metastatic disease. Complete surgical excision of all localized disease was curative in 94% of patients. Corrected five- and ten-year survival rates were 90% and 58%, respectively, in cases of localized disease, whereas in stage III disease, the rates were 46% and less than 30%, respectively. All patients with liver metastasis died within 25 months. A second malignancy, most often adenocarcinoma of the colon, occurred in 25% of patients. Carcinoid syndrome was found in 6% of patients. The best survival rates were noted for appendiceal and rectal carcinoids, and the worst for colon and stomach carcinoids.