We don’t know a lot about what causes neuroendocrine tumors, so we don’t have many strategies to prevent them. We do know that people with certain risk factors are at a higher risk of developing neuroendocrine tumors.

These risk factors include:

• A family history of multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) syndrome.
• Von Hippel-Lindau syndrome
• Neurofibromatosis
• Certain conditions that affect the stomach's ability to produce stomach acid, such as atrophic gastritis, pernicious anemia, or Zollinger-Ellison syndrome.
• Smoking tobacco

If you have one of these risk factors, your doctor may watch you closely. If you are at extremely high risk, your doctor may choose to remove an organ, such as the thyroid, to prevent a neuroendocrine tumor from growing there.