Prolonged Clinical Benefit of Everolimus Therapy in the Management of High-Grade Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Carcinoma

Treatment options for patients with high-grade pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNET) are limited, especially for those with progressive disease and for those who experience treatment failure. Everolimus, an oral inhibitor of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), has been approved for the treatment of patients with low- or intermediate-grade advanced pNET. In the randomized phase III RADIANT-3 study in patients with low- or intermediate-grade advanced pNET, everolimus significantly increased progression-free survival (PFS) and decreased the relative risk for disease progression by 65% over placebo. This case report describes a heavily pretreated patient with high-grade pNET and liver and peritoneal metastases who achieved prolonged PFS, clinically relevant partial radiologic tumor response, and resolution of constitutional symptoms with improvement in Karnofsky performance status while receiving a combination of everolimus and octreotide long-acting repeatable (LAR). Radiologic and clinical responses were maintained for 19 months, with minimal toxicity over the course of treatment. This case supports the findings that the combination of everolimus plus octreotide LAR may be considered for use in patients with high-grade pNET and progressive disease. Although behavior and aggressiveness are different between low- or intermediate-grade and high-grade pNET, some high-grade pNET may express mTOR; hence, everolimus should be considered in a clinical trial.