NCUK Virtual Patient Handbook

Differentiation refers to how different the cancer cell looks like compa this information it is possible to divide neuroendocrine cancers into 2 m neuroendocrine carcinomas: Neuroendocrine tumours (NETs) are well-differentiated cancers. Th change, the neuroendocrine cancer cells that form the tumour, have k cell. Their mitotic rate can vary from slow to rapid. Neuroendocrine carcinomas (NECs) are poorly-differentiated cance become very abnormal, with obvious features of cancerous change, lo They are also distinct by cell size - and can be further classified as eit consistently high. Mitotic rate: is a measure of how fast cancer cells are dividing and growing. To find the mitotic rate, the number of cells actively dividing in a certain amount of cancer tissue, is counted. This may be reported in histopathology reports using the abbreviation MiB-1 or Mitoses per 10 HPF. However, for most neuroendocrine cancers, histopathologists use Ki67 to ‘stain’ or identify actively dividing cancer cells: Ki67 is a protein that is present during all of the active stages of the cell cycle, a valuable marker of proliferation (cell division and growth), often expressed as a percentage (%). You may see the term Ki67 followed by a percentage, used in your clinical letters or reports. The higher the Ki67% the more rapidly the cells are dividing and growing.

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