Turkish Journal of Geriatrics 2010 , Vol 13, Issue 4
VENA CAVA SUPERIOR SYNDROME SECONDARY TO A GIANT METASTATIC CARCINOID TUMOR
Göktürk FINDIK1, Funda ÖZTÜRK1, Ebru ÇAKIR2, Koray AYDOĞDU1, Sadi KAYA1
1Atatürk Göğüs Hastalıkları ve Göğüs Cerrahisi Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi Göğüs Cerrahisi ANKARA
2Atatürk Göğüs Hastalıkları ve Göğüs Cerrahisi Eğitim ve Araştırma Hastanesi Patoloji ANKARA
Carcinoid tumors are a subgroup of neuroendocrine tumors and they are quite rare. They are usually located in the gastrointestinal tract and the bronchial system (gastrointestinal tract 82%, bronchial system 9%). The second most common localisation of carcinoid tumors is lungs and these comprise 2% of all lung tumors. They are low grade lung tumors that can invade regional lymph nodes. Distant metastases are very rare with a ratio of 5%. Regardless of the carcinoid tumor type, all tumours except those with distant metastases must be resected. Carcinoid tumors are seldom seen in thoracic surgery departments. In this report, we present a case which we operated for an atypical carcinoid tumor as it led to a giant mediastinal tumor metastasis and vena cava superior syndrome.

Sixty-two years old man was admitted to our clinic with complaints of chest pain, dyspnea and night fewer. He had a giant metastatic mediastinal carcinoid tumor which caused a vena cava superior syndrome. The patient died eleven days after the diagnostic mediastinoscopy.

Although carcinoid tumors are characterized as benign tumors, they may cause giant metastases and these cases have a poor prognosis. Keywords : Neoplasm metastasis; Carcinoid tumor/prognosis; Carcinoid tumor/diagnosis