Pulmonary carcinoid and related tumours

Abstract

Since the turn of the century carcinoid tumours have fascinated clinicians and pathologists. It may be because of their unpredictable behaviour, characteristic morphology or the unusual nature of the carcinoid syndrome. Whatever the reason, in the last twenty years the topic of neuroendocrine features in a tumour has been to the fore in pathology, probably because small cell carcinoma is so sensitive to chemo- and radiotherapy. This article will review the clinical and pathological features of typical and atypical carcinoid tumours. The relative "newcomer" of large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma will also be described. No description of small cell carcinoma will be given as it is available in standard texts and recent reviews [1, 2]. A classification of the common neuroendocrine tumours is given in Tab. I.