Prognostic variables in patients with gastrointestinal carcinoid tumou
r were studied with a view to identifying those most likely to benefit
from aggressive therapy. A total of 188 patients were studied; the me
dian follow-up of those surviving was 72 months. On univariate analysi
s variables of prognostic significance were sex (P < 0.01), site of th
e primary tumour (P < 0.01), depth of invasion (P < 0.001), tumour siz
e (P < 0.005), presence of lymph node (P < 0.001) or liver (P < 0.001)
metastases, mode of discovery (P < 0.001) and operative intent (P < 0
.001). On multi-variate analysis the variables independently predictiv
e of death from disease were sex (women have a better prognosis) and p
resence of metastases at the time of diagnosis.