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Review
. 2025 Mar;27(3):816-823.
doi: 10.1007/s12094-024-03607-0. Epub 2024 Aug 7.

Management of typical and atypical metastatic lung carcinoids: present and future perspectives

Ana Rodrigues  1 , Rui Henrique  2   3   4 , Carmen Jerónimo  2   3   4 , António Araújo  5   6
Affiliations
Review

Management of typical and atypical metastatic lung carcinoids: present and future perspectives

Ana Rodrigues et al. Clin Transl Oncol. 2025 Mar.

Erratum in

Abstract

Lung carcinoids are rare tumors representing 1-2% of all invasive lung malignancies. They include typical and atypical carcinoids, whose distinction is made based on the mitotic index and presence or absence of necrosis. The 10-year overall survival for stage IV typical carcinoid is 47% and 18% for atypical carcinoid, reflecting the indolent growth of these tumors. There are limited approved treatment options for them and most of the evidence comes from retrospective analyses, single-arm trials, subgroup analysis of phase II/III trials for metastatic neuroendocrine tumors and extrapolation of data from phase III trials for gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. Management of metastatic lung carcinoids requires a multidisciplinary standardized approach in specialized centers. Treatment should have a dual objective, control of tumor growth and control of symptoms related to hypersecretion syndromes, aiming to improve quality of life and survival. In the continuum of treatment disease, locoregional treatment options need to be considered in parallel with systemic treatments. In this paper, we review the present treatment options and their rational and we give an insight into future alternatives.

Keywords: Lung carcinoid; Lung neuroendocrine tumors; Metastatic.

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Conflict of interest statement

Declarations. Conflict of interest: The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. Ethical approval: This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors. Informed consent: For this type of study formal consent is not required. Data availability: Not applicable.

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