Carcinoid tumors: a 37-year experience.

We analyzed 101 cases of carcinoid tumor in patients treated at the University of Chicago hospitals between 1942 and 1979. Tumors occurred most commonly in the rectum (29%) and ileum (28%). Only 12% were appendiceal. More than 60% were less than 1 cm, and 43% were confined to the submucosa. These factors led to favorable prognoses. Twenty-three percent of the tumors were greater than 2 cm in diameter; 70% of them had metastasized, compared with only 6% of lesions less than 1 cm. Metastases were present in 46% of ileal and 40% of colonic lesions. None of 13 bronchial and only one of 12 appendiceal lesions demonstrated this spread. Carcinoid syndrome was noted in three cases. A second neoplasm was present in 22%. The corrected five-year survival rate was 87% overall, 95% without metastases, 83% with positive regional lymph nodes, and only 40% with distant spread.