title: Treatment of pulmonary neuroendocrine tumours: state of the art and future developments.
abstract: The current classification of pulmonary neuroendocrine tumours includes four subtypes: low-grade typical carcinoid tumour (TC), intermediate-grade atypical carcinoid tumour (AC), and two high-grade malignancies: large cell neuroendocrine carcinoma and small cell lung cancer (SCLC). Unfortunately, with the exclusion of SCLC, no large phase II and III trials for pulmonary neuroendocrine tumours have been published. Thus, several treatment approaches are available for their treatment but none of them has been validated in appropriately designed and adequately sized clinical trials. The main problem of the published studies is that they include neuroendocrine tumours from various sites of origin with different clinical behaviour. It is important that future studies consider these tumours separately. In this regard, increased awareness and referral of these patients to tertiary centres, in which a multidisciplinary management is available, may be of value. The aim of this review is to evaluate the state of the art and discuss future developments in the management of pulmonary neuroendocrine tumours excluding SCLC which we consider should be addressed in a different issue.
authors: Division of Medical Oncology, S.G. Moscati Hospital, Avellino, Italy. cgridelli@libero.it
authors: Cesare
authors: C
authors: Gridelli
authors: Antonio
authors: A
authors: Rossi
authors: Giuseppe
authors: G
authors: Airoma
authors: Roberto
authors: R
authors: Bianco
authors: Raffaele
authors: R
authors: Costanzo
authors: Bruno
authors: B
authors: Daniele
authors: Giovanni De
authors: GD
authors: Chiara
authors: Giuseppe
authors: G
authors: Grimaldi
authors: Luciana
authors: L
authors: Irtelli
authors: Paolo
authors: P
authors: Maione
authors: Alessandro
authors: A
authors: Morabito
authors: Franco Vito
authors: FV
authors: Piantedosi
authors: Ferdinando
authors: F
authors: Riccardi
mesh_terms: D018288:Carcinoma, Small Cell / Q000145:classification / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000145:classification / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D009367:Neoplasm Staging; D018358:Neuroendocrine Tumors / Q000145:classification / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D013004:Somatostatin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000627:therapeutic use
chemical_list: D013004:Somatostatin