Carcinoid of the lung

My mother has a carcinoid tumour of the lung? What is the outlook and treatment?

Carcinoid of the lung is a rare type of cancer. It is a different condition and needs different treatment from other more common types of lung cancer. These tumours start in the network of glands that send hormones into the bloodstream. They are more common in the gut (digestive system) but can occur elsewhere in the body. Around 1 out of 10 carcinoids (10%) occur in the lungs. There are two types of lung carcinoid. Doctors can only tell the difference by looking at the cells under the microscope

Typical lung carcinoids grow slowly and rarely spread to other parts of the body
Atypical lung carcinoids are much rarer, tend to grow faster, and are slightly more likely to spread to other parts of the body than typical lung carcinoids

The most common treatment is surgery. If all the carcinoid tumour can be removed, then no other treatment is needed. Surgery cannot be used if the carcinoid has spread too far through the body, or is too close to important organs in the body.

If the carcinoid has spread beyond where it first started and cannot be removed, the treatments that your mother may have include

Radiotherapy (usually only used to treat symptoms)
Chemotherapy (is used for atypical carcinoid tumours)

You or your mother will need to check with her doctor to get the correct medical diagnosis and find out about the treatment. A lot of the words doctors use sound quite similar, so it can help to get your doctor to write the diagnosis down.

We have a section with detailed information about carcinoid tumours.

We also have a section about lung cancer which tells you about the different types and treatments.