Along with the 2 main types of lung cancer (Small-Cell Lung Cancer-SCLC & Non-Small-Cell Lung Cancer-NSCLC), other tumors can occur in the respiratory system.
Carcinoid tumors of the lung account for less than 5% of lung tumors. Most are slow-growing tumors that are called typical carcinoid tumors. They are generally treated by surgery. Some typical carcinoid tumors can propagate, but they usually have a better diagnosis than small cell or non-small cell lung cancer. Less typical are atypical carcinoid tumors. The perspective for these tumors is somewhere in between typical carcinoids and small cell Lung Cancer. For more details about typical and atypical carcinoid tumors, see the individual papers, Lung Carcinoid Growth.
Causes of Lung Carcinoid Tumors:
Very little is known about what causes lung carcinoid cancers. Scientists have discovered a lot about how certain risks like cancer-causing substances or rays can cause changes in lung tissues that cause to carcinomas, the most common type of lung cancer. But these aspects are not believed to perform a huge part in the growth of lung carcinoid cancers.
Carcinoid cancers probably create from small groups of neuroendocrine tissues in the lung air passage known as carcinoid tumorlets. Tumorlets are sometimes discovered suddenly in lung biopsies done to cure or identify other circumstances. Under the microscopic lense, tumorlets look like carcinoid cancers, except that they are small – less than 5 mm (¼ inch) across.
Most tumorlets never develop any larger, but some may gradually become carcinoid cancers. Scientists still do not comprehend how carcinoid tumorlets create from lung neuroendocrine tissues or why tumorlets sometimes develop to become carcinoid cancers.
Key Statistics about Lung Carcinoid Tumors:
About 1% to 2% of all Lung tumors are carcinoids. There are about 4,000 recently clinically diagnosed Lung carcinoid tumors in the United Declares each year.
Carcinoid tumors are actually more common in the intestinal system than in the respiratory system. Only about 3 out of 10 carcinoid tumors start in the respiratory system.
In comparison with other types of Lung Cancer, carcinoids are generally clinically diagnosed in people who are a little bit young. The normal age at analysis is around 60 years.
The Risk Factors for Lung Carcinoid Tumors:
A danger aspect is anything that impacts your chance of getting an illness such as tumour. Different tumors have different risks. Some risks, like cigarette smoking, can be modified. Others, like an individual’s age or genealogy, can’t be modified.
But risks don’t tell us everything. Having a known danger aspect, or even several risks, does not mean that you will get the illness. And some individuals who get the illness may have few or no known risks.
Not much is known about why lung carcinoid tumors create in some individuals but not in others.
Gender
Carcinoids happen more often in women than in men. The reasons for this are not known.
Race/ethnicity
Lung carcinoids are more common in whites than in African People in America, Asian People in America, or Hispanics/Latinos.
Age
These tumors are usually discovered in individuals about 60 years old, which is a little bit young than the normal age for other types of lung cancer. But carcinoids can happen in individuals of almost any age. Although it is unusual, lung carcinoid tumors are sometimes even discovered in children.
Multiple hormonal neoplasia kind 1
People with several hormonal neoplasia kind 1 (MEN1, an inherited syndrome) are at risk for tumors in certain hormonal body parts, such as the pancreatic and the pituitary and parathyroid glands. These individuals also seem to be at improved danger for lung carcinoid tumors.
Family History
Most individuals with lung carcinoid tumors do not have a genealogy of this kind of tumour, but a propensity to create lung carcinoid tumors can be got. In unusual cases, several close relatives have been clinically identified as having this tumour. But because this tumour is so unusual, the danger is still low.
Tobacco Smoke
Typical lung carcinoid tumors do not seem to be connected with cigarette smoking or with any known substances in the surroundings or office. But some research have discovered that atypical lung carcinoids may be more common in those that cigarette smoking.
Can Lung Carcinoid Tumors be Prevented?
Because we do not yet know what causes most lung carcinoid cancers, it is not possible to know how to avoid them.
Smoking has been connected with an improved chance of atypical carcinoids in some research, so giving up (or not starting) might decrease an individual’s danger.