Risk Factors for Lung Carcinoid Tumors

A risk factor is anything that affects your chance of getting a disease such as cancer. Different cancers have different risk factors. Some risk factors, like smoking, can be changed. Others, like a person’s age or family history, can’t be changed.

But having a known risk factor, or even several risk factors, does not mean that you will get the disease. And some people who get the disease may have few or no known risk factors.

Not much is known about why lung carcinoid tumors develop in some people but not in others. Risk factors for lung carcinoid tumors include:

Sex

Lung carcinoids occur more often in women than in men. The reasons for this are not known.

Race/ethnicity

Lung carcinoids are more common in White people than in African Americans, Asian Americans, Hispanics, or Latinos.

Age

These tumors are usually found in people about 45-55 years old, which is slightly younger than the average age for other types of lung cancer. But carcinoids can occur in people of almost any age, including children and adolescents.

Multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1

People with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1), an inherited syndrome, are at high risk for tumors in certain endocrine organs, such as the pancreas and the pituitary and parathyroid glands. These people also seem to be at increased risk for lung carcinoid tumors.

Family history

Most people with lung carcinoid tumors do not have a family history of this type of cancer, but having others in your family who had lung carcinoid tumors can increase your risk. In rare cases, several family members have been diagnosed with this cancer. The overall risk is still low because this cancer is so uncommon.

Tobacco smoke

Typical lung carcinoid tumors do not seem to be linked with smoking or with any known chemicals in the environment or workplace. But some studies have found that atypical lung carcinoids may be more common in people who smoke.