Hepatic Cytoreductive Surgery for Neuroendocrine Cancer

Patients with gut-based metastatic neuroendocrine tumors (NET) often present late in the course of their slowly progressive disease, when cancer has extended beyond the point of reasonable expectation for surgical cure. At this stage of disease, the tumor's overwhelming hormonal production often significantly impairs the patient's quality of life. Unlike patients with other malignancies that might involve a heavy burden of hepatic metastatic disease, many patients with metastatic NET continue to live for a long time despite escalating hormone-related symptoms. This establishes the justification and rationale for cytoreduction, a noncurative surgical intervention that reduces tumor burden and hormonal burden and thereby can significantly increase symptom-free survival in the setting of an often slow but inevitable disease progression.