Everolimus for Advanced Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors

A randomized study involving 410 patients with advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors showed that everolimus, as compared with placebo, more than doubled the median progression-free survival (11 months vs. 4.6 months). Most of the adverse events were grade 1 or 2 in severity. The incidence and prevalence of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors are increasing 1 – 3 ; these tumors represent approximately 1.3% of all cases of pancreatic cancer in incidence and 10% of cases in prevalence. 1 – 3 Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors are frequently diagnosed at a late stage, with approximately 65% of patients presenting with unresectable or metastatic disease; as a result, these patients have a poor prognosis. The median survival time for patients with distant metastatic disease is 24 months, 2 and limited treatment options are available for this population. Streptozocin is the only approved therapy for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors in the United States; however, the . . .