Carcinoid Tumor Quotes

Within the class of neuroendocrine cancers, carcinoid is the most common specific cancer, but there also is a wide variety of other, much less common neuroendocrine cancers such as gastrinomas, somatostatinomas, VIPomas, etc.  All of the neuroendocrine cancers have symptoms which can partially mimic mast cell disease.  However, in the vast majority of cases of these rare tumors, the total range and duration of symptoms, and the pattern of progression/worsening, don’t come anywhere close to what’s typically seen in mast cell disease.  Nevertheless, in part because of the partial symptom mimicry, patients who are ultimately found to have mast cell disease often have been previously suspected of having – and thus have been intensively tested for, and sometimes even treated for – a neuroendocrine malignancy for which definitive diagnostic evidence cannot be found.