Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) and neuroendocrine carcinomas (NECs) (also known as typical and atypical carcinoids), as well as Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC), are subclasses of gastro-entero-pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (GEP-NETs), so named because they most often originate in the organs of the gastro-enterological system.  GEP-NETs originating in the lungs are quite rare.

There are an estimated 5,000 to 10,000 new cases of cancer associated with GEP-NETs in the United States each year, but only about 10 percent of those, or 500 to 1,000 cases, involve GEP-NETs originating in the lungs.  By contrast, U.S. deaths from lung cancer (in all of its forms) are estimated at more than 160,000 each year.

There is a real need for specific, directed research into these kinds of tumors.

Lung cancer is an insidious killer that comes in many forms, and it should be attacked on every front.  Given the small number of cases of lung-based NETs, NECs and Small Cell Lung Cancer (SCLC) relative to other kinds of lung cancers, these kinds of tumors receive far less clinical observation, research attention and fund-raising efforts than other, higher visibility forms of cancer.  The result is that these rare tumors remain harder to detect at early stages, harder to diagnose, and, in many cases, because of the problems of early detection and difficulty of diagnosis, harder to treat.