Neuroendocrine tumours (NET) of the stomach have increasingly entered into the focus of attention recently by endocrinologists as well as by surgeons on account of new findings on their biological background and their clinical relevance. The discriminating pathogenesis and the basically different biological behaviours of neuroendocrine tumours of the stomach require a differentiated therapeutical treatment for the different sub-types. The differential diagnostic clarification of the basic pathomechanism is therefore of decisive importance. As a consequence of the rarity of this entity, any treatment should be performed in corresponding centres. An interdisciplinary therapy planning, e. g., in the context of specialised inter-disciplinary conferences, such as an interdisciplinary board for endocrine and neuroendocrine tumours, is essential for an optimised management of these tumours. Important aspects of future research should - besides the genetic and molecular biological backgrounds - be the additional and potentially apparent factors for hypergastrinaemia, which induce a dysplastic and perhaps malignant transformation of the hyperplastic changes. Neuroendocrine tumours of the stomach remain a special challenge within the clinical daily routine - not only in the correct classification but also in the optimal surgical therapy.
Georg Thieme Verlag Stuttgart, New York.