[Neuroendocrine tumors of the gastrointestinal tract. Part 2: Current therapeutic concepts]

When diagnosed, the greater proportion of functioning endocrine tumors have already metastasized. As a result, the primary aim of treatment--complete surgical removal of the growth--is possible in only a small number of patients. This gives considerable importance to palliative treatment. Interferons and somatostatin are the substances in the forefront of therapeutic interest today, cytostatic chemotherapy having proved largely ineffective and associated with considerable side effects. A feature common to interferons and somatostatin is the fact that they are much more likely to achieve a subjective improvement in clinical symptoms rather than objective remission. However, this is not disadvantage, since, in view of the slow growth of these tumors, quality of life is determined by controlling endocrine activity and not by debulking tumor mass.