Symptoms and diagnosis of neuroendocrine tumors

When patients show symptoms that suggest a hereditary predisposition syndrome or reflect a family history, oncogenetic screening can detect an NET. 
More commonly, these tumors are diagnosed without a known cause. As a result, NETs may be discovered in a variety of ways, depending on the site of the original tumor. A digestive NET may be identified from an intestinal obstruction, abdominal pain, or rectal bleeding; respiratory infections, chronic cough, or bronchial hemorrhage may lead to discovery of a bronchial NET. 
An NET will be suspected when the tumor secretes hormones that cause diarrhea and flushing (sudden redness), a condition known as carcinoid syndrome, whose main complication is carcinoid heart disease.

More comprehensive testing in the form of nuclear medicine imaging, such as a conventional PET scan (FDG-PET), dopamine PET scan (DOPA-PET) or somatostatin receptor (DOTATOC-PET) scan, will aid in diagnosis. The value of a specialized center of expertise such as Institut Curie is that it can conduct all of these very different procedures at one site.
A conclusive diagnosis is confirmed by analyzing tissue fragments obtained during a biopsy or surgery, as part of a histological and anatomopathological analysis that can identify the tumor type and subtypes, differentiation level and severity. Institut Curie also performs a wide range of molecular profiling to detect tumor-specific genetic alterations.