What Are Neuroendocrine Tumors (NETs)?
Questions for Your Doctor
Your Guide to
What Are Neuroendocrine Tumors (NETs)?
- What Are Neuroendocrine Tumors (NETs)?
- Causes
- Symptoms
- Getting a Diagnosis
- Questions for Your Doctor
- Treatment
- Taking Care of Yourself
- What to Expect
- Getting Support
- What type of NET do I have, and where is it? Is it cancerous?
- What does this mean for me?
- Have you treated people with this kind of NET before?
- Is surgery an option for me?
- What other treatments do you recommend?
- How will they make me feel?
- How will we know if it’s working?
- What changes should I expect in my daily life?
- Will my children get a NET, too?
Treatment
Doctors can treat NETs with surgery, radiation, chemotherapy, and drugs. The treatment you get will depend on:
- What kind of tumor you have and how many there are
- Whether it's cancerous
- If it has spread to other parts of your body
Surgery is one of the most common treatments for many NETs. It can completely remove some tumors, especially those that aren't cancer and haven't spread.
A surgeon might be able to take out just the tumor. Other surgeries remove part or all of the organs that have a NET, like the pancreas, stomach, or liver.
Doctors can also use other kinds of surgery for people who can’t have a traditional operation or who have many, small tumors. In one type, called radiofrequency ablation, your doctor will put a probe into the tumor that gives off high-energy radio waves, which kills cancer cells in a certain area. Another type, called cryosurgery, delivers extreme cold directly to a tumor with a thin, hollow tube. For these operations, your doctor might use MRI scans or ultrasounds to guide where the probe should go.
Hormone therapy is a common treatment for carcinoid NETs. It uses a man-made version of the hormone somatostatin -- usually lanreotide (Somatuline Depot), octreotide (Sandostatin), or pasireotide (Signifor) -- which you get through an injection. These drugs keep the tumor from making hormones that can cause diarrhea and other carcinoid syndrome symptoms. They might also shrink the tumor.
Radiation uses high-energy X-rays to kill cancer cells. You might get this treatment if your tumor has spread or if it’s in a place that doctors can’t reach with surgery.