Gastrointestinal carcinoid tumors

Carcinoid tumors (CTs) were described more than 100 years ago by Oberndorfer (1,2).MacDonald (1) found 0.02% carcinoids in surgical cases, and 1% in necropsies.The incidence of carcinoid tumors has increased over time from 0.32/100,000 population and year (3) in the only community-based study available to 1-2 cases/100,000/year (4,5), and then further to 4.4/ 100,000/year (6,7); the rate in surgical specimens and necropsies was 8.4/100,000/year in Sweden during a 12-year period of time ( 8).The one study in our country (9) points out an incidence of 0.7/100,000 population/year for all CTs (0.125% in necropsies).CTs occur twice as much in Afro-American than in Caucasian patients (10).Gender distribution is similar,