ABSTRACT
Liver metastases from neuroendocrine tumors (NET) are often slow growing compared with other common solid tumors. To date, a variety of successful treatment modalities have been reported. Approaches include observation; medical treatment with somatostatin analogs, small molecules, or chemotherapy; embolization with or without chemotherapy; transarterial embolization with yttrium-90 microspheres; local ablative techniques; resection; and liver transplantation. Each of these options has been advocated, and good short- and medium-term results have been reported. This is more a reflection of the favorable biology of these tumors than of the merits of any particular therapy. In recent years, integration of the clinical, histological, and diagnostic techniques has led to the proposal of guidelines that may select out a small group of patients with metastatic NETs who have high potential for prolonged survival and even cure following liver transplantation [1, 2]. These criteria, however, still need to be adequately validated in multi-institutional studies before they can be accepted as the standard of care.
