Nuclear medicine imaging of neuroendocrine tumours

摘要

Neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) are a clinically diverse group of tumours which commonly affect the gastroenteropancre-atic tract and lungs. They are rare, with an incidence of 2-5/100,000, but this figure is rising due to improvement in biochemical assays. NETs comprise carcinoid tumours and various pancreatic tumours such as gastrinoma, insulinoma, VIPoma, gluca-gonoma and somatostatinoma. Tumours maybe benign or malignant and up to two-thirds secrete hormones and tumour-specific markers such as chromogranin A, 5-hydroxyindoleaceticacid, gastrin, serotonin and neurokinin A. Prognosis is highly variable, with five-year survival ranging from 19% in metastatic disease to 93% in local disease. NETs are of interest due to their expression of cell membrane receptors that contribute to their detection and treatment. A minority of NETs are associated with genetic and hereditary syndromes such as multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1.