title: Systemic Therapies for Advanced Gastrointestinal Carcinoid Tumors.
abstract: Well-differentiated gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors (GINETs) tend to be slow growing, but treatment of advanced disease remains a challenge. Somatostatin analogues (SSAs) are considered standard therapy for carcinoid syndrome. SSAs delay tumor progression in advanced well-differentiated gastroenteropancreatic NETs. Cytotoxic chemotherapy and interferon play a limited role in the treatment of nonpancreatic GINETs. There is no standard approach to treatment of patients with disease progression. Identification of systemic agents with antitumor activity in advanced disease remains an unmet medical need. Enrollment to clinical trials is encouraged; potential therapeutic targets include the vascular endothelial growth factor and mammalian target of rapamycin signaling pathways.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 505 Parnassus Avenue, Box 0119, San Francisco, CA 94143, USA.
authors.forename: Claire K
authors.initials: CK
authors.lastname: Mulvey
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Medicine, University of California, San Francisco, 1600 Divisadero Street, A727, San Francisco, CA 94115, USA. Electronic address: emily.bergsland@ucsf.edu.
authors.forename: Emily K
authors.initials: EK
authors.lastname: Bergsland
mesh_terms: D002276:Carcinoid Tumor / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000378:metabolism; D002986:Clinical Trials as Topic; D005770:Gastrointestinal Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D058990:Molecular Targeted Therapy / Q000379:methods*; D018358:Neuroendocrine Tumors / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000378:metabolism; D013004:Somatostatin / Q000031:analogs & derivatives / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D016019:Survival Analysis; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism; D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A / Q000037:antagonists & inhibitors / Q000378:metabolism
chemical_list: D042461:Vascular Endothelial Growth Factor A; D013004:Somatostatin; D058570:TOR Serine-Threonine Kinases
keywords: Carcinoid syndrome; Carcinoid tumor; Gastrointestinal neuroendocrine tumors; Mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) pathway; Somatostatin analogues