Extrapulmonary oat cell carcinoma.

Primary extrapulmonary tumors with histologic features indistinguishable from bronchogenic oat cell carcinoma are appearing with increasing frequency in the literature. These tumors have been described in the esophagus, stomach, pancreas, larynx, hypopharynx, salivary glands, nasal cavity and paranasal sinuses, thymus, small and large bowel, uterine cervix, endometrium, breast, prostate, urinary bladder, and skin. It is now widely believed that oat cell carcinoma is a poorly differentiated counterpart of carcinoid tumor and that both originate from an endocrine cell system. In this article, the authors review all cases of extrapulmonary oat cell carcinomas, which they were able to find in the English literature, and report personally studied examples of these tumors, occurring in the esophagus, stomach and urinary bladder. A closely related, if not identical, tumor arising in the skin is also described. It is emphasized that a wider recognition of these tumors is likely to lead to their more frequent diagnosis and possible treatment.