Ferlito Alfio, Devaney Kenneth O, Rinaldo Alessandra
Department of Surgical Sciences, ENT ClinicUniversity of Udine, Udine, Italy.
Acta Otolaryngol. 2006 Mar;126(3):228-31. doi: 10.1080/00016480500388901.
The concept of a carcinoid tumor in the gastrointestinal tract and lung is well established; less often, patients develop carcinoid tumors in the head and neck region. One particularly uncommon site of origin of carcinoid tumors in the head and neck area is the middle ear. Middle ear carcinoids have previously been approached as benign entities, lacking any capacity for metastasizing. A critical review of the literature, however, disclosed a small number of cases in which middle ear carcinoid tumors have given rise to regional (cervical node) metastases. This in turn suggests that, as is the case with pulmonary carcinoid tumors, middle ear carcinoids should be thought of as low-grade malignancies which, while relatively slow-growing, nevertheless possess a limited capacity for spreading to regional lymph nodes. To date, distant metastases have not been associated with middle ear carcinoid tumors.
胃肠道和肺部类癌肿瘤的概念已得到充分确立；较少见的是，患者会在头颈部区域发生类癌肿瘤。头颈部区域类癌肿瘤一个特别不常见的起源部位是中耳。中耳类癌以前被视为良性病变，没有任何转移能力。然而，对文献的严格审查发现了少数中耳类癌肿瘤发生区域（颈部淋巴结）转移的病例。这反过来表明，与肺类癌肿瘤一样，中耳类癌应被视为低度恶性肿瘤，虽然生长相对缓慢，但仍具有向区域淋巴结扩散的有限能力。迄今为止，中耳类癌肿瘤尚未发现有远处转移。
