Why does neuroendocrine tumor research lag far behind other cancer research?

Historically, neuroendocrine tumors have attracted few research dollars and little scientific attention because of its low incidence rate. In contrast, other cancers have much higher incidence rates and so receive much greater attention from researchers.

This situation is especially unfortunate because the low incidence rate of neuroendocrine tumors may be illusory.  Post-mortem studies have shown that people have neuroendocrine tumors at a far higher rate than detected during their lifetimes.  Neuroendocrine tumors often goes undetected because the physician community is relatively less experienced with this cancer and how to detect it early.