Surgical outcomes in 13 patients with bronchopulmonary carcinoid tumors including one recurrent oncocytic carcinoid tumor

Introduction Bronchopulmonary carcinoids are low-grade tumors for which the standard treatment is surgical resection. We retrospectively evaluated the surgical outcomes. Methods Thirteen patients underwent surgical resection for them at our institution between January 2005 and December 2016. We collected their clinicopathologic data to evaluate surgical outcomes. Results The 13 patients comprised seven men and six women. Complete resection was performed in all cases. All the tumors were typical carcinoids, including one oncocytic carcinoid which showed highest fluorodeoxyglucose (FDG) uptake (SUVmax 45.7). The 5-year overall survival rates were 100%. The only patient with oncocytic carcinoid developed recurrence of liver metastasis 49 months after the primary lung resection. The metastasis showed low FDG uptake (SUVmax 2.8) and its histology was typical carcinoid and not oncocytic carcinoid. Conclusion Surgical outcomes in our patients were favorable. In oncocytic carcinoid, metastatic site may have a radiologic and histologic appearance different from the primary tumor.