MOST carcinoid tumors of the gastrointestinal tract are situated in the appendix. The relatively benign nature of appendiceal carcinoids and their frequency contrast with the extra-appendicular variety of carcinoids. In fact, the extra-appendicular carcinoids, in all statistical studies, appear in the ill-defined area between benign and malignant lesions. Some present polyps or well circumscribed lesions; others present patterns of spread similar to adenocarcinomas of the gastrointestinal tract yet differ from them by their remarkably slow rate of growth.
The rarity of these lesions, their ill-defined nature, and peculiar biological characteristics create difficult problems in diagnosis and management.
The presentation and elucidation of such problems is the purpose of this study, which is based on the review of ten extra-appendicular, gastrointestinal carcinoids removed at the surgical departments of Beilinson Hospital and Meir Hospital during a period of ten years (1955 to 1965). A case in which a malignant carcinoid tumor was