Published online Nov 14, 2014. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v20.i42.15608
Revised: March 22, 2014
Accepted: May 23, 2014
Published online: November 14, 2014
The surgical treatment of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) draws on experience and guidelines more than on prospective randomized trials. The incidence of NET is increasing in all parts of the gastrointestinal tract. A variety of classifications introduced over the last decade may have led to difficulties in judging clinical relevance and determining the right surgical strategy. The North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society and the European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society have developed usable guidelines from the available literature. For more than 20 years laparoscopy has developed as the gold standard for various surgical indications. Nevertheless, few trials have compared open and laparoscopic surgery with regard to NET. This review summarizes the recent literature on surgery for NET and incorporates the evidence on laparoscopy for cancer which might be also applied for NET.
Core tip: The level of evidence for the role of laparoscopy for gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors (NET) is low. There is a lack of randomised trials. The authors searched for relevant literature for Net and laparoscopy as well as laparoscopic surgery for gastrointestinal malignancies. This paper provides a recent update for minimal invasive treatment for NET and included the pre- and postoperative management. In particular, this article also showed the value of radionuclide imaging for treatment stratification and management of these patients based on the overexpression of somatostatin receptors in the tumor.