Carcinoid Tumour – Types, Causes, Symptoms, Diagnosis and Treatment

Sometimes pain in your belly or a bad cough could seem trivial at first glance, but not all belly aches or colds are general symptoms of food poisoning or seasonal changes. These less concerning symptoms can be caused by severe medical conditions such as carcinoid tumours.

Wondering how you can be aware of such medical conditions and take necessary precautions? Stay tuned, and you will get every detail of a carcinoid tumour.

A carcinoid tumour is a rare type of tumour that grows slowly. These tumours are part of a group of diseases called neuroendocrine tumours (NET These types of tumours can grow in several parts of the body. Carcinoid tumour develops from the enterochromaffin cells that are hormones and chemical producing cells. These cells can be located in the appendix, bile ducts, liver, colon, rectum, bronchi, pancreas, small intestine, ovaries, testes, and other organs.

As carcinoid tumours develop from enterochromaffin cells, they have the same ability to produce hormones and sometimes in large amounts. Whenever these tumours start to show symptoms, they affect hormones. Therefore, once these hormones start circulating in the blood, thus resulting in carcinoid syndrome cause.

Reasons for which people get carcinoid tumours are still unknown to doctors. However, few things might push people towards this medical condition. These are discussed below,

• Conditions: Individuals who are suffering from stomach related medical conditions like Zollinger-Ellison syndrome or pernicious anaemia are susceptible to the growth of carcinoid tumours. Diseases like this result in a change in the amount of acid produced by the stomach. 
• Race: African-American people get more affected by carcinoid tumours than white people.
• Age: People who are diagnosed with carcinoid tumours usually belong to their 40s or 50s. 
• Gender: It has been noticed by doctors that women are more prone to carcinoid tumours than men.
• Genetic Diseases: If you are suffering from medical conditions like multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1), you may have a chance of developing these types of tumours. This is a genetic disease that causes around 10% of tumours.

From the above discussion, it is clear what is carcinoid tumour and which people have more chances of developing this type of disease.

So, let’s focus on the different types of carcinoid tumours.

Below are discussed three types of carcinoid tumours. 

• Hormone-secreting Tumours: These active tumours produce hormones like serotonin, histamine, dopamine. When these hormones circulate in the blood, these can result in developing carcinoid syndrome symptoms. 
• Slow-growing Tumours: Slow-growing tumours are the most common type of carcinoid tumour. These types of tumours do not grow rapidly or spread to other parts of the body.
• Faster-growing Tumours: As the name suggests, faster-growing tumours can grow quickly and in large size.

When people develop any of the three types of disease mentioned above, it results in some signs. These are elaborated below. 

Initially, carcinoid tumour symptoms can be found in the digestive tract (appendix, stomach, small intestine, rectum, colon) or the lungs.

These are the most common site of carcinoid tumours. When carcinoid tumours develop in these two areas, it shows various symptoms which are vague in nature and highly depend on the location of tumours. The symptoms as per the location are discussed separately,

1. Carcinoid Tumour Occurring in the Digestive Tract

Here is a list of signs that indicate carcinoid tumour of the digestive tract.

• Diarrhoea
• Abdominal pain
• Rectal pain
• Nausea
• Vomiting
• Constipation
• Skin flushing
• Blood in bowel movement

2. Carcinoid Tumour Occurring in the Lungs

Following are mentioned some of the carcinoid symptoms when developed in the lungs. 

• Chest pain
• Shortness of breath
• Diarrhoea
• Wheezing
• Redness or a feeling of warmth in your face and neck 
• Pink or purple marks on the skin that might look like stretch marks

The symptoms mentioned above must be the effect of some causes. Read the following section to learn about carcinoid tumour causes.

As stated earlier, carcinoid tumours causes are still unknown or unclear to doctors. Generally, cancer grows in the body when a cell develops mutations in its DNA. Due to this mutation, the growth of cells continues and starts to divide when healthy body cells die.

Therefore, when these cells accumulate, they develop into a tumour. Cancer cells attack nearby healthy cells and slowly spread into the other parts of the body. The reasons for these mutations, which result in carcinoid tumours, are yet to be discovered. However, it is clear that these tumours develop in neuroendocrine cells.

The causes and subsequent effects of carcinoid tumours can be classified into various categories or stages depending on their time of diagnosis. Read along!

Carcinoid tumours can grow primarily in two parts of the body. These are,

1. Gastronomical Tract
2. Lungs 

When doctors diagnose this particular medical condition, they may discuss some stages as per the location of the disease.

Stages of Carcinoid Tumour in the Gastronomical Tract

• Localised: In this stage, cancer does not spread to other body parts and usually remain in the place of origins such as colon, intestine or stomach.   
• Regional Stage: In this stage, tumours may have moved to other small glands, lymph nodes, or other nearby tissues such as muscle or fat.
• Distant Stage: When cancer spreads to the other parts of the body, such as bones, lungs, liver, it is said to be in a distant stage.

Stages of Carcinoid Tumour in the Lungs

The stages of lung carcinoid tumours are classified based on spread level. These are discussed below -

• Stage 0- This stage refers to a condition when the tumour has developed in the upper layers of cells that lines with the airways.
• Stage I- In stage I, the tumour stays in the lungs only and has not spread into lymph nodes.
• Stage II- In this stage, cancer develops in the lungs into few centimetres in size. When doctors diagnose this stage, cancer may not have moved to the lymph nodes around the place of origin on the same side of the chest.
• Stage III- Here, the tumour develops in the lungs, lymph nodes in the middle of the chest. There are possibilities that the tumour has spread into the chest, i.e. chest wall, heart and collar bones.
• Stage IV- When a patient reaches the fourth stage of lung carcinoid tumour, it might invade both the lungs, fluid around the lungs and other body parts.

The treatment of carcinoid tumours depends on the stage a patient is in and its severity. Read on to know about the treatment methods of this tumour.

Depending on the location and intensity, doctors choose carcinoid tumours treatment options. These include,

• Observation
• Surgery
• Interferon and chemotherapy
• Radiation therapy
• Radiofrequency ablation
• Hepatic artery embolisation
• Cryotherapy 
• Hormone therapy
• Chemoembolisation
• Immunotherapy
• Radioembolisation

Note: For carcinoid syndrome treatment, doctors prescribe medications to control hormones.

After learning about the stages of this disease and treatment, they must follow carcinoid tumour treatment guidelines to ensure a faster recovery. Further, knowing about prevention methods can help individuals to eliminate the chances of developing carcinoid tumours.

Whereas most disease has prevention ways, the same does not apply for carcinoid tumours. Just like the causes, the prevention method of this tumour is still unclear. However, some studies stress that people who smoke are more likely to develop lung carcinoid tumours. Therefore, tobacco smoking can be considered one of the risk factors for carcinoid tumours. Also, by treating carcinoid tumours at the right time, individuals can prevent carcinoid syndrome symptoms.

As the symptoms of carcinoid tumours are difficult to diagnose, they are mostly found out while treating other diseases.

However, to conduct carcinoid tumour diagnosis, doctors do the following tests -

• Biopsy
• Upper endoscopy
• Octreoscan
• Capsule endoscopy
• Blood and urine test
• Radionuclide scanning
• Colonoscopy
• X-ray
• CT or Computer Tomography
• MRI or Magnetic Resonance Imaging

Following is a detailed discourse on prognosis of carcinoid tumours occurring in gastronomical tract or lungs.

1. Gastronomical Carcinoid Tumour Prognosis

With surgical resection, the survival rate for gastronomical carcinoid tumours can improve. Patients who have received surgical treatment have an overall 83%, 5-year survival rate.

2. Lung Carcinoid Tumour Prognosis

The prognosis of lung carcinoid tumour is positive. Individuals treated with typical carcinoid tumours have an 85%-95% average five-year survival rate. On the other hand, people who have received treatment for atypical carcinoid tumours have a 5-year survival rate of 50%-60%.

The above-mentioned piece discusses everything about carcinoid tumours. Since these types of medical conditions are difficult to be diagnosed, individuals must be cautious about the genetic disease (if any) and take preventive methods like quit smoking.  

Further, they must follow the guidelines of doctors, carcinoid tumour management methods like doing yoga, eating healthy high-protein food. Individuals must reach out to doctors whenever they face difficulties breathing, feel pain in the stomach, or notice other symptoms, as discussed above. 

So, read the symptoms and details carefully and eliminate the chance of developing a carcinoid tumour.