Unmet Medical Needs in Metastatic Lung and Digestive Neuroendocrine Neoplasms

Neuroendocrinology. 2019;108(1):18-25. doi: 10.1159/000493319. Epub 2018 Aug 28.

Abstract

Unmet medical needs are not infrequent in oncology, and these needs are usually of higher magnitude in rare cancers. The field of neuroendocrine neoplasms (NENs) has evolved rapidly during the last decade, and, currently, a new WHO classification is being implemented and several treatment options are available in the metastatic setting after the results of prospective phase III clinical trials. However, several questions are still unanswered, and decisions in our daily clinical practice should be made with limited evidence. In the 2016 meeting of the advisory board of the European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society (ENETS), the main unmet medical needs in the metastatic NENs setting were deeply discussed, and several proposals to try to solve them are presented in this article, including biomarkers, imaging, and therapy.

Keywords: Biomarkers; Imaging; Metastasis; Neuroendocrine neoplasms; Therapy; Unmet medical needs.

Publication types

  • Review

MeSH terms

  • Biomarkers, Tumor / metabolism
  • Biomedical Research / trends*
  • Digestive System Neoplasms* / diagnosis
  • Digestive System Neoplasms* / drug therapy
  • Drug Development
  • Humans
  • Lung Neoplasms* / diagnosis
  • Lung Neoplasms* / drug therapy
  • Neuroendocrine Tumors* / diagnostic imaging
  • Neuroendocrine Tumors* / metabolism
  • Neuroendocrine Tumors* / therapy

Substances

  • Biomarkers, Tumor