Controversies in the treatment of digestive neuroendocrine tumors

Abstract

Gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) have an incidence of 2.39 per 100,000 inhabitants per year, and a prevalence of 35 cases per 100,000 inhabitants; the gap between these rates is due to the relatively long survival time of these tumors, which can be thus considered as chronic oncological diseases. Recently, more therapeutic options have become available, but criteria for defining timing, priority and sequence of different therapeutic options are still debated. This review offers an overview of pancreatic and small bowel NETs, critically underlining the issues that still need to be clarified and some controversial issues on the therapeutic approach for NET patients.

Keywords

Neuroendocrine tumors / therapeutic strategy / surgical treatment / medical therapies

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