Novel Agents in Gastroenteropancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors

Neuroendocrine tumors (NET) are a diverse group of tumors that derive from epithelial cells with neuroendocrine differentiation. Gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors are a subset of NET that arises in the gastrointestinal tract. Clinical symptoms and presentations vary depending on the location and hormones produced by the tumor. Treatment of advanced and metastatic gastroenteropancreatic NETs has traditionally been difficult with few systemic treatment options. In 2011, two new targeted therapies, everolimus and sunitinib were approved for treatment of pancreatic NET leading to increased interest in novel agents active in gastroenteropancreatic NETs. At the 2013 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium two abstracts presented new data regarding novel therapies. Lombard-Bohas et al. (Abstract #224) presented new data from the RADIANT-3 trial and Shen et al. (Abstract #322) looked at the use of octreotide in elderly patients with carcinoid syndrome.