title: Neuroendocrine tumors: insights into innovative therapeutic options and rational development of targeted therapies.
abstract: Neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) are heterogeneous neoplasms with respect to molecular characteristics and clinical outcome. Although slow-growing, NETs are often late diagnosed, already showing invasion of adjacent tissues and metastases. Precise knowledge of NET biological and molecular features has opened the door to the identification of novel pharmacological targets. Therapeutic options include somatostatin analogs, alone or in combination with interferon-α, multi-targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitors (e.g. sunitinib) or mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitors (e.g. everolimus). Antiangiogenic approaches and anti insulin-like growth factor receptor (IGFR) compounds have been also proposed as combination therapies with the aforementioned compounds. This review will focus on recent studies that have improved therapeutic strategies in NETs, discussing management challenges such as drug resistance development as well as focusing on the need for predictive biomarkers to design distinct drug combinations and optimize pharmacological control.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine and Center of Excellence for Biomedical Research (CEBR), University of Genova, viale Benedetto XV, 2-16132 Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Barbieri
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine and Center of Excellence for Biomedical Research (CEBR), University of Genova, viale Benedetto XV, 2-16132 Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Manuela
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Albertelli
authors.affiliation: Department of Surgical and Diagnostic Sciences and IRCCS-AOU San Martino IST, University of Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Federica
authors.initials: F
authors.lastname: Grillo
authors.affiliation: Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, CRN2M UMR7286, 13344 cedex 15, Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Amira
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Mohamed
authors.affiliation: Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, CRN2M UMR7286, 13344 cedex 15, Marseille, France; AP-HM, Conception Hospital, Molecular Biology Laboratory, 13385 Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Alexandru
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Saveanu
authors.affiliation: Aix-Marseille Université, CNRS, CRN2M UMR7286, 13344 cedex 15, Marseille, France; AP-HM, Conception Hospital, Molecular Biology Laboratory, 13385 Marseille, France.
authors.forename: Anne
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Barlier
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine and Center of Excellence for Biomedical Research (CEBR), University of Genova, viale Benedetto XV, 2-16132 Genova, Italy.
authors.forename: Diego
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Ferone
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine and Center of Excellence for Biomedical Research (CEBR), University of Genova, viale Benedetto XV, 2-16132 Genova, Italy. Electronic address: tullio.florio@unige.it.
authors.forename: Tullio
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Florio
mesh_terms: D000818:Animals; D000970:Antineoplastic Agents / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy; D018358:Neuroendocrine Tumors / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D000970:Antineoplastic Agents