More Treatment Options for Various Types of Neuroendocrine Tumors
Posted by PET-CT Las Colinas on March 25th, 2019
Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) come from neuroendocrine cells. Neuroendocrine cells are cells that have features of endocrine and nerve cells combined. They are very useful to the human body since they help with the production of hormones and their subsequent release. NETs occur wherever neuroendocrine cells are in the body as opposed to a particular primary location like with other tumors.
NETs are relatively rare but their occurrence has increased over the years. They may grow slowly but they often spread. Patients may also not present with any symptoms at first and this has lead to late diagnosis in almost half of the cases. NETs are diverse in their occurrence but the most common type occurs in the gastrointestinal tract (GI-NET) and accounts for over 65% of cases. 25% of NETs occur in the bronchopulmonary system which is inclusive of the thymus and lungs. At number three are pancreatic NETs (pNETs) accounting for below 1% of total NETs. GI-NETs and pNETs are usually grouped together and referred to as gastroenteropancreatic NETs (GEP-NETs).
Due to theirdiverse presentation, researchers are trying several treatment methods to combat NETs. They include:
• Somatostatin analogs (SSAs) – This is a synthetic form of the somatostatin hormone. It binds to somatostatin receptors (SSTRs) which are overly expressed by NETs. Octreotide and lanreotide bind SSTR2and SSTR5are among the two SSAs initially used mainly to reducecancer symptoms but are now approved to be used for treatment.
• SSAs and radioisotopes – These two put together form the peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT). The procedure involves using SSAs to take radiation to the tumor cells directly. Thus far, the most promising of the radioisotopes under study is lutetium-177.
• Molecularly and immune-targeted therapies – The mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) facilitates important cellular processes including the production and survival of cells. Studies have shown that it is altered with NETs and targeting it resulted in a positive effect. Everolimus is still being evaluated for its effect. Sunitinib was already approved in 2011 to treat pNETs.
More and more researchers continue to delve into possible treatment mechanisms for NETs. Immunotherapy is also in the books as it has proven effective for the treatment of other types of tumors.
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PET / CT of Las Colinas was developed with both patients and physicians in mind and our services have been used for various types of disease; primarily in detecting, staging and monitoring cancer, but also in heart disease and brain disorders.
