Is there any role for minimally invasive surgery in NET?

Neuroendocrine tumors (NET) represent the variability of almost benign lesions either secreting hormones occurring as a single lesion up to malignant lesions with metastatic potential. Treatment of NET is usually performed by surgical resection. Due to the rarity of NET, surgical treatment is mainly based on the experience and recommendations of experts and less on the basis of prospective randomized studies. In addition, the development and establishment of new surgical procedures is made more difficult by their rarity. The development of laparoscopic-assisted surgery has significantly improved the treatment of many diseases. Due to the well-known advantages of laparoscopic surgery, this method has also been increasingly used to treat NET. However, due to limited comparative data, the assumed superiority of laparoscopic surgery in the area NET remains often unclear or not yet proven. This review focuses on the present usage of laparoscopic techniques in the area of NET. Relating to the current literature, this review presents the evidence of various laparoscopic procedures for treatment of adrenal, pancreatic and intestine NET as well as extraadrenal pheochromocytoma and neuroendocrine liver metastases. Further, this review focuses on recent new developments of minimally invasive surgery in the area of NET. Here, robotic-assisted surgery and single-port surgery are promising approaches.