Safety and efficacy of peptide receptor radionuclide therapy in neuroendocrine tumors: A single center experience

Peptide receptor radionucleotide therapy (PRRT) with Lu-177-dotatate is widely used for the treatment of patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). We analyzed data from 104 patients with NETs treated with Lu-177 -dotatate at a US academic center between December 2017 and October 2020 to better understand patterns of long-term efficacy, safety, and toxicity in the real-world setting. Lu-177-dotatate (200 mCi) was administered every eight weeks for four doses. The most common sites of primary disease were small intestine NETs (n = 49, 47%), pancreatic NETs (n = 32, 31%), and lung NETs (n = 7, 7%). Twenty-seven percent had Ki-67 <3%, 49% had Ki-67 between 3-20%, and 13.5% had Ki-67 >20%. The cohort had been pretreated with a median of two prior lines of treatment. Forty percent had received prior liver-directed treatment. Seventy-four percent of patients completed all four doses of treatment. The objective response rate was 18%. The median time-to-treatment failure/death was significantly longer for small-bowel NETs when compared to pancreatic NETs (37.3 months vs. 13.2 months, p = 0.001). In a multivariate model, Ki-67, primary site, and liver tumor burden >= 50% were found to independently predict time-to-treatment failure/death. Around 40% of patients experienced adverse events of >= grade 3 severity. Treatment-related adverse events leading to discontinuation of therapy happened in 10% of patients. Preexisting mesenteric/peritoneal disease was present in 33 patients; seven of these patients developed bowel-related toxicities including two grade 5 events. We also report two cases of delayed-onset minimal change nephrotic syndrome, which occurred 14 and 27 months after the last dose of PRRT. Lastly, we describe six patients who developed rapid tumor progression in the liver leading to terminal liver failure within 7.3 months from the start of PRRT, and identify potential risk factors associated with this occurrence, which will need further study.