Menu
Back to Journals » OncoTargets and Therapy » Volume 5
Treatment of advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors: potential role of everolimus
Received 17 September 2011
Accepted for publication 26 October 2011
Published 3 April 2012 Volume 2012:5 Pages 217—224
DOI https://doi.org/10.2147/OTT.S16289
Review by Single anonymous peer review
Peer reviewer comments 4
Putao Cen, Robert J Amato
Division of Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston (Medical School), Houston, TX
Abstract: Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs) are frequently diagnosed at unresectable stage and remain a medical challenge. Everolimus (RAD001, Afinitor®, Novartis, Basel, Switzerland), an orally administered inhibitor of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), was recently approved by the Food and Drug Administration to treat patients with advanced PanNETs. This review will examine the mechanism of action of everolimus, the function of mTOR and its inhibition, PanNETs and the mTOR pathway, and clinical trials of everolimus in PanNETs. Future investigations will focus on everolimus combination therapy to treat PanNETs and the discovery of predictive biomarkers for response to everolimus.
Keywords: pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor, PanNETs, everolimus, RAD001, mTOR inhibitor, biomarker
© 2012 The Author(s). This work is published and licensed by Dove Medical Press Limited. The full terms of this license are available at https://www.dovepress.com/terms.php and incorporate the Creative Commons Attribution - Non Commercial (unported, v3.0) License.
By accessing the work you hereby accept the Terms. Non-commercial uses of the work are permitted without any further permission from Dove Medical Press Limited, provided the work is properly attributed. For permission for commercial use of this work, please see paragraphs 4.2 and 5 of our Terms.