Foreword

Article Outline

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Carcinoid tumors have attracted an interest far out of proportion to their incidence, mainly because they have such interesting biological characteristics and are associated with a variety of clinical syndromes. Almost 100 years ago, Oberndofer coined the name “karzinoide” to describe this tumor, which compared to adenocarcinoma, has a similar histology but a less aggressive clinical behavior. A great deal has been written about these tumors, however, Dr. William Bean, the late Professor of Medicine at the University of Iowa, best described the classic syndrome associated with metastatic carcinoid in the following limerick:

“This man was addicted to moanin’,

Confusion, edema and groanin’,

Intestinal rushes,

Great tricolored blushes,

And died from too much serotonin”