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Endocrine Abstracts (2015) 37 EP1132 | DOI: 10.1530/endoabs.37.EP1132

1Department of Clinical Medicine and Surgery, Section of Endocrinology, Federico II University, Napoli, Italy; 2Department of Internal and Specialistic Medicine, Endocrinology, University, Palermo, Italy; 3Department of Clinical and Sperimental Medicine, Endocrinology, University, Messina, Italy.


Somatostatin analogs (SSA) effectively control symptoms in neuroendocrine tumours (NET), besides showing antiproliferative activity. In progressive or metastatic NET, increasing SSA dose or shortening the dosing interval are common clinical practice, though empirical. Aim of this study is to evaluate efficacy and safety of high-dose SSA treatment in patients with progressive disease under standard SSA dose. Twenty-one patients (median age 56.8 years) with NET of different origin were retrospectively identified among 118 patients under SSA therapy. All 21 patients were treated with SSA high dose schedule treatment, after disease progression under standard dose. The median follow-up was 22.3 months (range 4–76). High dose schedule included octreotide LAR in 15 patients (73%) and lanreotide Autogel in 6 (27%). Progression free survival was significantly higher with high-dose treatment compared with standard dose (32 vs 8 months, P<0.05). Partial objective tumour response was recorded in one patient (5%), stabilisation in 10 (47.5%) and progression in 10 (47.5%). Among 16 patients who were symptomatic under standard dose, complete clinical response was obtained in 1 (6%), partial response in 9 (57%). Side effects were abdominal discomfort (5%), asymptomatic gallstones (5%) and type 2 diabetes mellitus (5%). High-dose SSA treatment in progressive NET is still effective in patients refractory to standard SSA doses. No additional toxicity is observed compared with standard dose.

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