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Carcinoid Tumors: Current Concepts in Diagnosis and Treatment
Carcinoid tumors belong to the family of neuroendocrine tumors which derive from the neuroendocrine cell system, widely distributed in the body. These tumors are rather rare, with age-adjusted incidence rates for all types of carcinoids of 1.2-2.1/100,000 population/year [1]. The incidence of the car- cinoid syndrome (see below) is about 0.5/100,000 [2]. The term “carcinoid” is at the moment under debate among spe- cialists working in this field. The term was originally intro- duced by Oberndorfer in 1907, who described a type of tumor in the gut with less malignant behavior [3]. Read More →

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New outlook for neuroendocrine cancer.
Two agents dramatically delayed the time to disease progression in metastatic neuroendocrine tumors, according to reports at the 2009 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.
The PROMID study (Placebo-controlled prospective Randomized study on the antiproliferative efficacy of Octreotide LAR in patients with metastatic neuroendocrine MIDgut tumors) evaluated the antitumor effects of the somatostatin analog octreotide acetate (Sandostatin LAR), which already is used to treat the severe diarrhea and flushing associated with neuroendocrine tumors (NET).
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Fulminant Cushing’s Syndrome due to an ACTH-Producing Thymic Carcinoid

Thymic carcinoid is a rare cause of Cushing’s syndrome. We present a case of fulminant Cushing’s syndrome that led to a severe catabolic state with multi-organ involvement. Aggressive and specific medical treatment with organ support in the intensive care setting resulted in sufficient clinical improvement that enabled definitive surgery.
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A cytologic diagnosis of thymoma is extremely challenging. In part, this is because the tumor is uncommon and aspirates are infrequently encountered, a technically proficient interventional radiolo- gist is needed, epithelial cells may be difficult to recognize in lymphoid rich aspirate smears, and there is inherent sampling error in a tumor that frequently displays heterogeneous histopathology. Critical to the cytologic diagnosis of most WHO Type B thymomas is the recognition of a distinct population of epithelial cells mixed with lymphocytes.Read More →

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Conclusions.—Carcinoid tumor of the mediastinum is frequently misclassified as thymoma in this program. Al- though some cytologic patterns resemble thymoma, the lack of correlation of these patterns with performance sug- gests that at least part of the reason for misclassification may be failure to consider the correct diagnosis.Read More →