Diagnosis

Tests and procedures used to diagnose pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors include:

• Blood tests. Blood tests may reveal excess hormones or other signs of a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor.
• Urine tests. Analysis of your urine may reveal breakdown products that result when your body processes hormones.

• Imaging tests. Imaging tests help your doctor look for abnormalities in your pancreas. Tests may include ultrasound, CT and MRI.

  Imaging might also be done with nuclear medicine tests, which involve injecting a radioactive tracer into your body. The tracer sticks to pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors so that they show clearly on the images, which may be created with positron emission tomography (PET) that's combined with CT or MRI.

• Creating images of your pancreas from the inside of your body. During an endoscopic ultrasound, a thin tube with a camera on the tip is passed down your throat and into your stomach and small intestine. A special ultrasound tool is used to create pictures of your pancreas. Special tools can be passed through the tube to collect a tissue sample (biopsy).
• Surgery to collect a sample of cells for testing. In some cases, your doctor may recommend minimally invasive surgery to obtain a tissue sample for testing (biopsy). During laparoscopy, the surgeon makes several small incisions in your abdomen, through which special tools and a tiny camera are inserted. The surgeon then looks for signs of cancer and may collect a tissue sample.
• Collecting cells from other areas for testing. If cancer has spread to your liver, lymph nodes or other locations, a needle may be used to collect cells for analysis.