Lung Neuroendocrine

Gastrointestinal and lung neuroendocrine tumors are two independent rare malignancies, which are part of broad group of tumors called neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). They are generally characterized by an indolent course. However, some of them are lethal malignancies and their incidence is almost equivalent to mortality. The complex pathophysiology, absence of early diagnostic and prognostic markers and low responsiveness to radiation and chemotherapies are major barriers against successful therapy. Poor performance of therapeutic agents, even in the initial stage of invasive cases, emphasizes the importance of early detection for improved survival. Small intestinal neuroendocrine tumor (SI-NET) belongs to the biggest group of gastroentero-pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. They are epithelial tumors with endocrine differentiation and arise from enterochromaffin (EC) cells in the intestinal mucosa. Diagnosis is delayed for up to 5 years. As main result, the vast majority of patients are admitted to medical work-out with metastatic or inoperable disease. Surgery is then seldom curative and conventional chemotherapy and radiotherapy are inefficient. Neuroendocrine neoplasms of the respiratory tract are managerially separated into four subgroups on the basis of clinical characteristics: typical carcinoid tumor (TC), atypical carcinoid tumor (AC), large-cell neuroendocrine carcinoma (LCNEC) and small cell lung carcinoma (SCLC). They originate from pulmonary neuroendocrine cells (PNEC). They are specialized airway epithelial,cells either solitary cells or clusters called neuroepithelial bodies in the lung. PNEC have not been clearly studied as the enterochromaffin cells. Mainly TC and AC are the lung tumor types involved in our studies and only radical surgery offers the best chance to survive for the patients suffering from these tumours.

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Last date updated on September, 2024