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“The past is a different country, they do things differently there”: using the SEER data-base to assess prognosis in neuroendocrine tumours

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Abstract

Neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) are still considered to be rare neoplasms, and their epidemiology has been classically studied in large population-based cancer registries. Besides the benefits and the limitations that a cancer registry may have for all the registered cancers, the National Cancer Institute’s Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) Programme, has a number of drawbacks for the study of NENs. The change in management of NENs, either from diagnostic or from therapeutic points of view, the role of the Ki-67 labelling index and introduction of sensitive functional imaging, along with the misclassification of the more benign types of NENs, are the main limitations of the prognostic ability of the SEER data-base, particularly when including older data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. Second Department of Surgery, Aretaieio Hospital Athens, Medical School, National and Kapodistrian University of Athens, Athens, Greece

    Krystallenia I. Alexandraki

  2. Section of Endocrinology and Internal Medicine, Department of Medical Sciences, University of Ferrara, Ferrara, Italy

    Maria Chiara Zatelli

  3. NET Unit, Royal Free Hospital, London, UK

    Ashley B. Grossman

Authors
  1. Krystallenia I. Alexandraki
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  2. Maria Chiara Zatelli
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  3. Ashley B. Grossman
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All authors contributed to the study conception and design. The first draft of the manuscript was written by K.I.A. and all authors commented on previous versions of the manuscript. All authors read and approved the final manuscript.

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Correspondence to Krystallenia I. Alexandraki.

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Alexandraki, K.I., Zatelli, M.C. & Grossman, A.B. “The past is a different country, they do things differently there”: using the SEER data-base to assess prognosis in neuroendocrine tumours. Endocrine 75, 725–727 (2022). https://doi.org/10.1007/s12020-021-02959-9

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