Why does carcinoid research lag far behind other cancer research?
Historically, carcinoid has attracted few research dollars and little scientific attention because of its low incidence rate. According to the American Cancer Society, only 5,000 carcinoid patients are diagnosed each year in the U.S. In contrast, other cancers have much higher incidence rates and so receive much greater attention from researchers. This situation is especially unfortunate because the low incidence rate of carcinoid may be illusory. Post-mortem studies have shown that people have carcinoid at a far higher rate than detected during their lifetimes. Carcinoid often goes undetected because the physician community is relatively less experienced with this cancer and how to detect it early.
