Four Cases of Carcinoid Tumor in Asymptomatic Thirties / 가정의학회지

ABSTRACT

Carcinoid is a neuroendocrine tumor and contains many peptide substances and biological active amines, so if it is released, it can cause carcinoid syndrome. However, most carcinoid tumors are unfortunately asymptomatic, and it is difficult to find one smaller than 1 cm because it doesn't have prominent mucosal elevation and change. We can reduce expenses and recovery period of the patient by using a relatively noninvasive endoscopic mucosal resection, unless it has distant organ and lymph node metastasis. Colonoscopy is an optimizing diagnostic tool for early detection of asymptomatic carcinoids. But according to colonoscopic guidelines of many institutes, they recommend to perform a screening colonoscopy in the asymptomatic fifties if there are no risk factors. However, a careful examination of colonoscopy is needed, because possibility of malignant tumor in aymptomatic young age. The authors report four cases of carcinoid tumor in asymptomatic thirties with review of several literatures.