Sansone Andrea, Lauretta Rosa, Vottari Sebastiano, Chiefari Alfonsina, Barnabei Agnese, Romanelli Francesco, Appetecchia Marialuisa
Section of Medical Pathophysiology, Food Science and Endocrinology, Dept. of Experimental Medicine, Sapienza University of Rome, 00165 Rome, Italy.
Internal Medicine, Angioloni Hospital, San Piero in Bagno, 47026 Forlì-Cesena, Italy.
Cancers (Basel). 2019 Aug 4;11(8):1113. doi: 10.3390/cancers11081113.
The diagnosis of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) is a challenging task: Symptoms are rarely specific, and clinical manifestations are often evident only when metastases are already present. However, several bioactive substances secreted by NETs can be included for diagnostic, prognostic, and predictive purposes. Expression of these substances differs between different NETs according to the tumor hormone production. Gastroenteropancreatic (GEP) NETs originate from the diffuse neuroendocrine system of the gastrointestinal tract and pancreatic islets cells: These tumors may produce many non-specific and specific substances, such as chromogranin A, insulin, gastrin, glucagon, and serotonin, which shape the clinical manifestations of the NETs. To provide an up-to-date reference concerning the different biomarkers, as well as their main limitations, we reviewed and summarized existing literature.
神经内分泌肿瘤（NETs）的诊断是一项具有挑战性的任务：症状很少具有特异性，而且临床表现往往只有在已经出现转移时才明显。然而，NETs分泌的几种生物活性物质可用于诊断、预后评估和预测。根据肿瘤激素的产生情况，这些物质在不同的NETs之间表达有所不同。胃肠胰（GEP）NETs起源于胃肠道和胰岛细胞的弥散神经内分泌系统：这些肿瘤可能产生许多非特异性和特异性物质，如嗜铬粒蛋白A、胰岛素、胃泌素、胰高血糖素和5-羟色胺，这些物质决定了NETs的临床表现。为了提供有关不同生物标志物及其主要局限性的最新参考资料，我们对现有文献进行了综述和总结。
