7. PATIENTS AND TUMORS

Frozen tumor tissue and corresponding blod samples were available from eight patients dia-gnosed with and operated for midgut carcinoid tumors during a 13-year period (August 1983 till February 1996) at the University hospital Uppsala, Sweden. Patients were identified through the medical archives and pathological reports. Access to the pathological and clinical data was approved by the institutional board and the regional research ethics committé. Six of the primary lesions originated in the ileum, one in the ileo-cecal valve and one in the ascending colon. Tissue from two primary tumors, four mesenteric metastases and two liver metastases were investi-gated. All eight tumors had metastasized to the liver and/or the small intestine mesenterium and/ or other sites at the time of surgery. In all patients the carcinoid tumors occurred sporadically as diagnosed by the lack of both personal and family history of the same tumor. The patients were four females and four males with an age range of 43 to 73 years. Clinical and pathological characteristics are displayed in Table 3.

Table 3. Clinical characteristics of cases with malignant midgut carcinoids subjected to genome- wide LOH screening (AWD=alive with disease)