CARCINOID TUMORS Of the a l imen ta ry tract are relatively rare. Carc ino id tumors of the rec tum are less c o m m o n than those arising in the appendix , i l eum or j e j u n u m , bu t they occur more f requent ly t han those in the colon, stomach, ga l lb ladder and duodenum.2 Langhans , 9 in 1867, was the f r s t au thor to describe a carc inoid tumor which occurred in the i leum. Lubarsch, 111a in 1888, considered these tumors to be a va r i an t of carcinoma, bu t it was no t un t i l 1907 that Oberndor fe r :4,xs provided the name carc inoid to d is t inguish it f rom a true carcinoma. T h e first carc inoid tumor ar is ing in the rec tum was described by Saltikow 19 in 1919, and the first carc inoid repor ted in America was that by Brunschwig3 in 1933. i n the 1940's other case reports began to appear*< ~7, 2o and, w i th in the last decade, many series have been reported, together with several excel lent reviews. 1, 22 At the time of this report , approx imate ly 440 cases have been analyzed and reported. 7 A recent survey by f r e u n d 4 suggests that almost as great a n u m b e r of un repo r t ed pat ients with this lesion mus t exist. Th i s historical change has been b rough t abou t in a large par t by the increased practice of pe r fo rming careful digi tal rectal and proctosigmoidoscopic examina t ions in the well pat ient . T h e laity has become cognizan~ o[ and expects this e , -amina t ion as an i m p o r t a n t par t of a physical checkup in