Objectives: To determine the frequency and outcome of carcinoid tumors in a large series of patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD).
Methods: Eleven patients with carcinoid tumors associated with IBD were admitted or readmitted to The Mount Sinai Hospital between 1960 and 1995. These cases were derived from two sources, seven from our clinical series of 3326 IBD patients (0.2%) and four more recent cases from the records of our Pathology Department. Six of the cases were associated with Crohn's disease and five with ulcerative colitis.
Results: Nine of the 11 carcinoids were found in the appendix, and 2 were found in the ileum. All carcinoids were found incidentally after surgery for IBD; none of the patients had distant metastases or carcinoid syndrome. Of the 11 cases, 3 were associated with an additional noncarcinoid tumor: 2 with adenocarcinoma of the colon and 1 with endometrial carcinoma.
Conclusions: There appears to be no evidence to substantiate a direct association between IBD and carcinoid tumor, because almost all cases were found incidentally after surgery for IBD, with a frequency in operated IBD patients similar to that reported for patients without IBD.