Neuroendocrine Tumors Diagnosis

When you come to us for care, we start by ensuring you have a thorough and precise neuroendocrine tumor diagnosis. Winship has a team of radiologists, nuclear medicine physicians and pathologists dedicated solely to gastrointestinal cancers, meaning we are experts in neuroendocrine cancer diagnosis and staging. But we don’t stop there. We go further to analyze your cancer on a molecular level to determine exactly what’s driving it — so we can figure out the best way to stop it. Because your neuroendocrine cancer is unique, your treatment plan should be too.

Neuroendocrine tumors are often found incidentally, meaning they’re detected by chance after an imaging scan or surgery for a different condition. In other cases, patients experience symptoms that lead to a neuroendocrine cancer diagnosis.

At Winship, we take a multi-stage approach to ensure every patient gets a thorough and accurate neuroendocrine tumor diagnosis. Because no two neuroendocrine cancers are the same — even those that are the same type and stage — your cancer will differ from another patient’s. And it’s imperative we understand your cancer to properly treat it. We know you’re anxious to move forward with treatment, but getting a full and precise neuroendocrine cancer diagnosis is critical, and it won’t take long, we promise.

To confirm a neuroendocrine tumor diagnosis, your Winship physician may order some combination of the following tests:

Next-gen imaging. Depending on the type of neuroendocrine tumor suspected, a variety of imaging tests may be used. At Winship, we use the latest diagnostic imaging technology available, including computed tomography (CT), ultrasound, positron emission tomography (PET) and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI). We piloted the use of combination PET-MRI scanning with a nuclear tracer to more precisely diagnose neuroendocrine tumors. With this technology, neuroendocrine tumors are more visible and well-defined than with either imaging test alone. And with a team of radiologists — doctors who read and interpret imaging tests — who specialize in neuroendocrine cancers, we have the technology and the expertise to locate all types of neuroendocrine tumors and determine the extent of your disease.

Biopsy. To confirm a neuroendocrine cancer diagnosis, your doctor will need to collect a tissue sample (biopsy) that will then be tested for cancer in a lab. In most cases, our highly skilled interventional radiologists can collect a sample using a needle under CT imaging guidance. However, if your tumor is in a difficult to access area and a tissue sample can’t be obtained through needle biopsy, you’ll need to have surgery to biopsy the tumor and check it for cancer.

Hormone secretion. Your doctor will run additional tests to determine the specific hormone that is abnormally secreted by the cancer cells, especially if you have symptoms directly attributable to them.

Molecular pathology. If a biopsy confirms a neuroendocrine cancer diagnosis, our molecular pathologists will conduct genomic profiling to look at the DNA inside your tumor to identify any cell characteristics, including genetic mutations and biomarkers. Winship scientists, genomic and tumor sequencing experts will analyze what’s driving your particular neuroendocrine cancer and then work with your oncologists to determine which types of treatment will work best against it.

Staging is the process of determining how advanced a cancer is at the time of diagnosis. Most cancers are assigned a stage of 1 through 4, with Stage 1 indicating the cancer has not spread beyond its original location, and Stage 4 describing cancer that has spread to distant parts of the body.

Grading is another important process in neuroendocrine cancer diagnosis that indicates how fast- or slow-growing a neuroendocrine tumor is. There are three tumor grades. Grade 1 tumors are considered to be slow growing. Grade 2s are intermediate. And Grade 3 tumors grow quickly. Thorough neuroendocrine cancer diagnosis, including accurate staging and grading, is integral and will help inform your personal treatment plan.