Carcinoid tumor appearing in the form of rectumal polyp

Carcinoid tumors are rare, hormone producing neoplasms which can be spotted in the gastrointestinal tract, the pancreas, the lungs and sometimes in other organs. Traditionally they are divided into three subgroups: foregut, midgut and hindgut of origin. Their clinical symptoms depend on the materials produced by them (biogenous amines, peptide hormones). More recently the nomination “neuroendocrine tumor“ is used, the classical term “carcinoid tumor“ is applied only for the serotonine producing tumors of midgut origin. In our case a 38 year-old female patient was examined because of constipation, meteorism and shooting abdominal pain. In the course of rectoscopy a 12mm diameter pedunculated polyp was found at 5cm from the anus. It has been removed and sent to histological analysis. The finding was carcinoid. Since it was located in the rectum it belonged to the carcinoids of hindgut origin. So it did not cause typical symptoms of carcinoid syndrome. In our case the neoplasm was found by accident in a polyp which was removed because of atypical abdominal complaints. Nevertheless the case attracted our attention to this rare type of neoplasms. The presented case is an example for a surprisig histological structure in a simple polyp.