Advances in small bowel neuroendocrine neoplasia

Purpose of review This review aims at summarizing progress in clinical trials and basic science redefining the diagnosis and treatment of well differentiated small intestine neuroendocrine tumors (SI-NET). Recent findings Two clinical trials demonstrated antitumor activity of the long-acting somatostatin analogues octreotide long-acting release and lanreotide for advanced SI-NET. The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor everolimus is another treatment option for patients with SI-NET, but awaits definitive proof of benefit in the ongoing RAD001 In Advanced Neuroendocrine Tumors study (RADIANT-4). Two whole exome/genome-sequencing studies reported in the past year provided the first genome-wide analysis of large sets of SI-NET at nucleotide resolution. Candidate therapeutically relevant alterations were found to affect SRC, SMAD genes, aurora kinase A, epidermal growth factor receptor, heat shock protein 90, and platelet-derived growth factor receptor as well as mutually exclusive amplification of RAC-alpha serine/threonine-protein kinase (AKT1) or AKT2 and other alterations of PI3K/Akt/mTOR signaling genes. The gene CDKN1B is inactivated by small insertions/deletions in 8% of patients with SI-NET suggesting cell cycle inhibitors as new candidate drugs for SI-NET. Circulating tumor cells and tumor-derived RNA in the blood are promising clinical tests for SI-NET. Summary Clinical and genomic research may merge in the near future to re-shape clinical trials and to define the 'personalized' treatment options for patients with SI-NET.