Pancreatic carcinoid tumours are extremelyinfrequent. Usually, the biological behaviour isindolent and diagnosis is late and often casual. Wepresent the case of a patient initially diagnosed ashaving liver metastasis of unknown origin. PETidentified a primary pancreatic site and the initialhistologic diagnosis was adenocarcinoma.Following an uncertain response to chemo- andradio-therapy the repeat histologic assessmentindicated a carcinoid tumour of the pancreas. Aftercomplete surgical resection and livertransplantation, patient remains free of disease.
Conclusions:
The co-existence of several diseaseswith similar morpho-structural features makesdiagnosis complicated. PET is of uncertain use inthe evaluation of carcinoid tumours, and isconsidered inferior to 111Indium-octreotide scan.The only curative treatment is surgical resection,with liver transplantation as a valid option in thetreatment of these tumours