Role of radiotherapy for pancreatobiliary neuroendocrine tumors

• Published in: Radiation oncology journal 2013, 31(3), , pp.125-130
• Main Authors: Lee, Jeongshim, Choi, Jinhyun, Choi, Chihwan, Seong, Jinsil
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Original; 방사선과학
• ISSN: 2234-1900; 2234-3156; 2234-3164
• DOI: 10.3857/roj.2013.31.3.125

We investigated the role of radiotherapy (RT) for pancreatobiliary neuroendocrine tumors (PB-NETs). We identified 9 patients with PB-NETs who received RT between January 2005 and March 2012. Of these 9 patients, 4 were diagnosed with NETs in the pancreas and 5 were diagnosed with NETs in the gallbladder. All patients received RT to the primary tumor or resection bed with a median total irradiation dose of 50.4 Gy, with or without chemotherapy. The tumor response rate and tumor control rate in the RT field were 60% and 100 %, respectively. All 4 patients who underwent surgery had no evidence of disease in the RT field. Of the 5 patients who received RT to the primary gross tumor, 1 had complete response, 2 had partial response, and 2 had stable disease in the RT field. The median time to progression was 11 months. Of the 9 patients, four patients had no progression, and 5 patients had progression of disease (locoregional, 2; distant, 2; locoregional/distant, 1). Of the 4 patients without progression, 3 were treated with RT in adjuvant or neoadjuvant setting, and one received RT to primary tumor. One patient experienced radiation-induced duodenitis at 3 months after concurrent chemoradiation without treatment-related mortality. RT can yield local control for advanced PB-NETs. RT should be considered an essential part of multimodality treatment in management of advanced PB-NETs.