Thorvardur Halfdanarson, MD, associate professor of medicine and consultant in medical oncology, Mayo Clinic, discusses improvements in diagnostics for neuroendocrine tumors, as well as what improvements are still needed.
Thorvardur Halfdanarson, MD, associate professor of medicine and consultant in medical oncology, Mayo Clinic, discusses improvements in diagnostics for neuroendocrine tumors, as well as what improvements are still needed.
Transcript
Have diagnostics in neuroendocrine tumors improved over recent years?
Absolutely. So, vastly, since we got access to nuclear medicine or receptor imaging studies, such as Gallium 68-Dotatate PET/CT, we’ve seen that our diagnostic abilities have improved a lot. So, these studies are much more sensitive than the octreoscan is. We have to be careful with the 68Ga-DOTATATE PETs because they may pick up other tumors or even benign conditions that express somatostatin receptors. But, diagnostics have improved. Great deal, especially with imaging
There’s a new imaging compound possibly on its way using a different isotope Copper-64 with a longer half-life than Gallium 68. It may be useful for more remote areas, and I’m not sure if it has any better imaging qualities than the Gallium 68. But, there’s a lot of exciting things happening in diagnostics.
What improvements are still needed?
I think what we need in terms of improvements, we still need better treatments for refractory small bowel neuroendocrine tumors. So, essentially until we got the PRRT [peptide receptor radionuclide therapy] approved, there was somatostatin analog therapy and everolimus, and beyond that not a whole lot of effective treatments.
Now we have somatostatin analogs, everolimus, and PRRT, we don’t know how to sequence them. The progression-free survival of patients who have PRRT is probably 2.5 to 3 years, on average, and a lot of these patients will eventually progress. So, we need to know more about who can we retreat with PRRT, and if we can retreat them, how should we do it. And we need better treatments for now PRRT refractory patients.
Examining Low-Value Cancer Care Trends Amidst the COVID-19 Pandemic
April 25th 2024On this episode of Managed Care Cast, we're talking with the authors of a study published in the April 2024 issue of The American Journal of Managed Care® about their findings on the rates of low-value cancer care services throughout the COVID-19 pandemic.
Listen
Budesonide-Based Triple Therapy Shows Best Benefit Over Dual Therapy for COPD
May 8th 2024The triple therapy of budesonide, glycopyrrolate, and formoterol fumarate showed the greatest incremental net benefit among a series of triple therapy medications that were evaluated against dual therapy for chronic obstructive pulmonary disease (COPD), according to an analysis presented at ISPOR.
Read More
Oncology Onward: A Conversation With Penn Medicine's Dr Justin Bekelman
December 19th 2023Justin Bekelman, MD, director of the Penn Center for Cancer Care Innovation, sat with our hosts Emeline Aviki, MD, MBA, and Stephen Schleicher, MD, MBA, for our final episode of 2023 to discuss the importance of collaboration between academic medicine and community oncology and testing innovative cancer care delivery in these settings.
Listen
AUA Session Highlights the General Urologist’s Role in Gender-Affirming Care
May 7th 2024During her session, Polina Reyblat, MD, Kaiser Permanente Los Angeles Medical Center, highlighted best practices urologists should incorporate to make transgender and gender-diverse patients comfortable during physical exams and avoid retraumatization.
Read More