Follow-up of 102 patients operated on for gastrointestinal carcinoid.

A series of 102 patients with carcinoid tumor is reviewed. The sites of carcinoid were stomach (1 case), appendix (32), small intestine (57) and colon or rectum (12). The average age was 37 years in the patients with appendiceal carcinoid and 62 years in the others. The mean observation time was 9.2 years in appendiceal carcinoid, and none of these patients died of the tumor. Among the patients with carcinoid in other sites, the 5-year survival rate was 65%. Only patients initially free from metastases were still alive after 12 years. Multiple synchronous carcinoid tumors were found in 14 cases, all of them men. The investigation illustrated the difficulties in preoperative diagnosis of carcinoid, including the small value of laboratory tests. A positive attitude to exploratory laparotomy is therefore recommended. When no or only a few lymph-node metastases are found at intendedly curative operation, a "second look" exploration six months after the primary operation will probably reveal any recurrence and can lead to radical removal of this slow-growing tumor. When distant metastases are present, the long-term outlook is poor. The reason why only men had multiple synchronous carcinoids was not clear from our study.