A case of a minute gastric carcinoid tumor with regional lymph node metastasis that was misdiagnosed as an intraabdominal mass / 대한내과학회지

ABSTRACT

Gastric carcinoid tumors have been regarded as rare neoplasms, accounting for just 0.3% of all gastric tumors and fewer than 2% of all carcinoid tumors. Recently, there has been an increase in the number of reported studies of gastric carcinoid tumors with the widespread use of gastroscopy and improvements in immunohistochemical methods. Gastric carcinoid tumors are classified into three types. For type III gastric carcinoids not associated with hypergastrinemia, which tend to be larger and demonstrate a biologically more aggressive behavior with metastasis, and also for sporadic lesions, excision with regional lymph node clearance has been recommended. Tumors that are less than 1cm in size are called minute carcinoids, which seldom give rise to regional lymph node metastasis, except in rare cases. We report here a rare case of a minute gastric carcinoid tumor with regional lymph node metastasis that was misdiagnosed as an intraabdominal mass in a 42-year-old woman. Furthermore, we review the available literature on this entity.