More than ten years of published clinical data and personal experience using peptide receptor radionuclide therapy of neuroendocrine tumours supports the effectiveness of this novel treatment approach and the ability to minimise and manage potential toxic side effects.

A comprehensive review of somatostatin analogue PRRT is published in Cancer Biotherapy and Radiopharmaceuticals, a peer-reviewed journal from Mary Ann Liebert, Inc., publishers. 

In the article "Myelotoxicity of Peptide Receptor Radionuclide Therapy of Neuroendocrine Tumours: A Decade of Experience," Murali Kesavan and J. Harvey Turner, The University of Western Australia (Crawley, Australia), state that PRRT has revolutionised the management of patients with neuroendocrine tumours, improving tumour response rates and patients' progression-free survival.

However, the associated toxicity to blood cells - with the potential to cause thrombocytopenia and neutropenia and, in the long term, myelodysplastic syndrome and acute leukaemia - remains a risk and has limited the use of PRRT.

The researchers suggest that PRRT should more readily be considered a first-line agent in appropriate patients.

Steps can be taken to minimise the risk of significant long-term effects, such as appropriate timing of therapy, patient selection criteria, dose optimisation, and adequate monitoring.

"This is an important discussion of the efficacy and toxicity issues relating to the use of PRRT, as the therapy becomes more widely available for the treatment of gastroenteropancreatic tumours with radiolabeled somatostatin analogs," says Co-Editor-in-Chief Donald J. Buchsbaum, PhD, Department of Radiation Oncology, Division of Radiation Biology, University of Alabama at Birmingham.

Source: Cancer Biotherapy and Radiopharmaceuticals