Targeted Therapies Provide Treatment Options for Poorly Differentiated Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Carcinomas

Poorly differentiated pancreatic neuroendocrine carcinoma (PD pNECs) is a rare disease that has a poor prognosis and is treated with systemic chemotherapy as the standard of care. We present 6 cases of chemo-naïve patients diagnosed with PD pNECs who refused systemic chemotherapy and received targeted therapies with sunitinib (37.5 mg/day, 5 patients) or the mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR) inhibitor everolimus (10 mg/day, 1 patient) as the first-line treatment. We evaluated the drugs' toxicities and survival. The median age of the patients was 55 years (4 males, 2 females, functioning tumor in 1 of 6 patients). The median of the Ki67 index was 45% (range 20-80). Targeted therapies were combined with somatostatin analogues in 4 of 6 patients (30 mg Sandostatine LAR monthly). Toxicities (acute and late) were manageable and no toxicities necessitated cessation of treatment. All patients had progression-free survival during the 15-month treatment and an overall survival of more than 2 years after diagnosis. Even though this is a small cohort of selected patients, we conclude that sunitinib or everolimus are both feasible and safe and have encouraging results of efficacy as first-line therapies for PD pNEC.