Surgery is the standard therapy, but the extent of spread is important in deciding the initial treatment options.
Surgery Surgical removal of the tumor is the standard treatment for cure. If the primary tumor is
localized and can be removed, the five-year survival rate is in the range of 70 to 90 percent. Since carcinoid tumors are usually slow growing, even patients with tumors that can't be removed have an average survival of several years. Surgery often offers excellent relief from symptoms, for example, by removing the liver metastases causing the carcinoid syndrome, resecting or bypassing intestinal obstructions. Such surgery may add years to a patient's life, an uncommon result of surgery for other types of liver metastases.
Radiation Radiation therapy may be used for palliative treatment of metastases.
Chemotherapy There has been modest success with chemotherapy. Drug combinations of
5-fluorouracil and streptozocin have had responses of about 30 percent.
Palliation A relatively new drug, octreotide , is very effective in preventing the secretion of
serotonin and can help relieve symptoms of the carcinoid syndrome.
