Korean J Gastrointest Endosc.
2002 Sep;25(3):164-168.
A Case Report of Atypical Rectal Carcinoid
- Affiliations
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- 1Division of Gastroenterology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Ulsan College of Medicine, Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea. sky@amc.seoul.kr
Abstract
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Carcinoid tumors arise from enterochromaffin cells of neural crest origin. Rectal carcinoid tumors make up 1 to 2% of all rectal tumors. Approximately 50% of rectal carcinoid tumors are found incidentally on routine endoscopy, and they are asymtomatic. Rectal carcinoid is easily diagnosed by the characteristic submucosal tumor with yellowish color. There have been, however, some rare cases where the rectal carcinoid tumor was not easily diagnosed because of its atypical feature. We report a case of atypical rectal carcinoid tumor misdiagnosed as rectal cancer on endoscopic finding: this atypical gross morphology on endoscopy may be due to atypical histopathologic findings.