Dr Susumu Hijioka speaks to ecancer about a phase III study of combination therapy with everolimus plus lanreotide versus everolimus monotherapy for unresectable or recurrent gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumour.

Standard treatment for grade one or two non-functional gastrointestinal pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours includes somatostatin analogues or molecular target therapy.

However, patients with poor prognostic factors need more aggressive treatment.

The STARTER-NET trial shows that combination therapy significantly improves progression-free survival, achieving a median of 29.7 months compared to 11.5 months for monotherapy.

This therapy may set a new standard of care for high-risk patients.