Pulmonary neuroendocrine (carcinoid) tumors: European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society expert consensus and recommendations for best practice for typical and atypical pulmonary carcinoids

This is an expert consensus from the European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society recommending best practice for the management of pulmonary neuroendocrine tumors including typical and atypical carcinoids. It emphasizes the latest discussion on nomenclature, advances and utility of new diagnostic techniques as well as the limited evidence and difficulties in determining the optimal therapeutic strateg

Temozolomide as Second or Third Line Treatment of Patients with Neuroendocrine Carcinomas

Background. Knowledge of the clinical efficacy in recurrent neuroendocrine carcinomas is sparse. Treatment with temozolomide alone or in combination with capecitabine and bevacizumab has recently shown promising results. Patients and Methods. Analysis of consecutive patients with neuroendocrine carcinomas (Ki-67 proliferation index >20%) and performance status 0–2 treated with temozolomide 200 mg/sqm orally days 1–5 every 28 days after at least one previous platin-containing chemotherapy regimen. Results. Twenty-eight eligible patients received a median of 3 courses. Sixteen patients were evaluable for response: Six achieved stable disease and ten progressed. The median survival for the 28 patients was 3.5 months. Survival in patients with tumors of pancreatic origin (n=7) was 7.0 months versus 2.9 months in non-pancreatic origin (n=21). Patients in PS 0-1 (n=22) had a median survival of 4.5 months versus 1.1 months in patients in PS 2 (n=6). Ki-67 index ≥50% was associated with a significantly shorter median survival than Ki-67 index <50% (2.7 months versus 10.9 months). The treatment was well tolerated. Conclusion. Temozolomide monotherapy has limited effect in treatment of recurrent neuroendocrine carcinomas. Second line treatment with temozolomide in combination with other compounds should be further investigated in patients in good performance with Ki-67 index <50%

Unmet Medical Needs in Metastatic Lung and Digestive Neuroendocrine Neoplasms

Unmet medical needs are not infrequent in oncology, and these needs are usually of higher magnitude in rare cancers. The field of neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) has evolved rapidly during the last decade, and, currently, a new WHO classification is being implemented and several treatment options are available in the metastatic setting after the results of prospective phase III clinical trials. However, several questions are still unanswered, and decisions in our daily clinical practice should be made with limited evidence. In the 2016 meeting of the advisory board of the European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society (ENETS), the main unmet medical needs in the metastatic NENs setting were deeply discussed, and several proposals to try to solve them are presented in this article, including biomarkers, imaging, and therapy