Outcomes and patterns of failure in bronchial carcinoid tumors

Purpose: To clarify the natural history, prognosis, and treatment failure patterns for bronchial carcinoid tumors according to their clinical and histopathologic features. Methods: The charts of 241 patients from our institution with bronchial carcinoid tumors were reviewed. Thirty-four patients had no follow-up, yielding a study population of 206. Of the 206 patients, 62 had atypical carcinoid (AC) and 144 had typical carcinoid (TC) tumors. Results: The 5-, 10-, and 20-year disease-specific survival rates were lower in patients with AC (60.1%, 36.8%, and 28.1%, respectively) than in those with TC (79.0%, 62.9%, and 38.8%, respectively; p = 0.0002). Predictors of poor outcome included more advanced stage (p <0.00001), male gender (p = 0.019), symptoms at presentation (p = 0.013), and age ≥60 years (p = 0.02). Stage I AC was associated with a median disease-free survival of 96 months compared with 222 months for Stage I TC (p = 0.0002) and had an actuarial 22% locoregional failure rate 5 years after surgery compared with 6% for Stage I TC (p = 0.022). The disease-free survival for Stage II and III AC was worse than that for Stage II or III TC, but the difference did not reach statistical significance (p = 0.15). Locoregional failure was also prominent in Stage II and III AC. Second malignancies were common in patients with bronchial carcinoids (56 of 206 patients). Conclusion: Stage-for-stage, the outcome is worse for patients with AC than for those with TC. Locoregional failure is common after curative resection, even for early-stage AC. Second cancers are common in patients with carcinoid tumors.