Inclusion Criteria:

- Therapy-naive patients with histologically confirmed diagnosis of a locally
inoperable or metastasized well-differentiated neuroendocrine tumor of the midgut

- curative surgery impossible

- two-dimensional tumor formation assessable by Computed Tomography (CT) or Magnetic
Resonance Imaging (MRI)

- Age ≥ 18

- Karnofsky-index > 60

- written informed consent

- proliferation index for Ki67

Exclusion Criteria:

- hypersensitivity to octreotide

- poorly differentiated or small cell neuroendocrine tumors

- primary tumor outside of the midgut

- prior treatment with somatostatin-analogue > 4 weeks

- prior treatment with alpha-interferon, chemotherapy, or chemoembolisation

- participation in any other clinical trial

- pregnancy or lactation

- no secondary malignancy in anamnesis; with the exception of patients without any
manifestation of the secondary malignancy (without relapse) after curative therapy
within the last five years

- severe decompensated organ malfunction (heart-, liver- insufficiency)

Other protocol-defined exclusion criteria may apply.