Type 1 gastric carcinoid tumor: another extrahepatic manifestation of hepatitis C virus infection?

A 67 year-old female with a 10-year history of cirrhosis due to hepatitis C virus who developed a gastric carcinoid tumor of the corpus is described. Carcinoid tumor was identified during her last routine gastroscopic evaluation for portal hypertension. In the case, serum parietal cell antibodies, hypergastrinemia and atrophic gastritis were also found. Chronic hepatitis C virus infection is known to induce clinical and laboratory signs of autoimmunity. But the question of whether hepatitis C virus plays a pathogenic role in the development of gastric carcinoid tumor is unknown. As far as we know, this is the first report describing gastric carcinoid tumor in hepatitis C virus induced chronic liver disease. We suggest that the possibility of the development of autoimmune atrophic gastritis and carcinoid tumors should be considered in patients with chronic hepatitis C that coexists with autoimmune diseases and has positive parietal cell antibodies.