The
goals of medical
treatment for advanced pancreatic
neuroendocrine tumor (
PNET) are to control
hormone-related symptoms and to prolong overall
survival.
Somatostatin analogues have been used for decreasing the
secretion of
peptides and relieving symptoms. Recent studies showed that these agents also have an anti-
tumor effect and could prolong the
survival of
patients with advanced
PNET. For well-differentiated
PNET,
streptozocin-based
combination chemotherapy has been used for a long
time and recent several studies showed
survival benefit of targeted agents including
angiogenesis inhibitor and mTOR inhibitor. For poorly-differentiated
tumors, the number of clinical studies is very limited and the combination of
etoposide and
cisplatin is widely used. Based on the recent progress in the
understanding of
tumor biology, newer targeted agents are tested and some of these agents showed promising activity.