NEUROENDOCRINE CANCERS AND ATOMIC TREATMENT

What is neuroendocrine cancer?

Neuroendocrine cancers are rare tumors. They usually root in stomach and intestinal systems and show themselves by metastasizing into the liver. They are slow type of cancers. Some patients show symptoms of uncontrollable diarrhea, hypoglycemia and rash on the face.

How are these cancers treated?

Like other types of cancer, primary treatment is surgery. However, very few patients can get this chance. Patients who are unfit for surgery don’t have much options besides radioactive Lu-177 Dota-Tate therapy with smart molecules.

How can Neuroendoctine tumors be treated with smart molecules?

Smart molecules are molecules designed to find and stick to the tumor and it’s metastases and get inside the cancerous tissue after entering the body. They don’t cause any side-effects or harm. These molecules are marked with a radioactive substance in a laboratory and used in both diagnosis and radioactive iodine therapy.

Has this method been used for a long time?

Yes. For nearly 15 years, this method is being used with a smart molecule called octreotide which is coupled with Lu-177. There have been more than 1500 treatments so far in our clinic.

Who can it be applied to?

It can be applied to all the patients with neuroendocrine tumor. An imaging study is taken before to see if the patient can benefit from the treatment. If it shows that they can, the treatment starts.

Are there any side-effects?

There are no significant side-effects. Nausea for a couple of days can be seen rarely. Besides that, the patient can go about their usual lifestyle. The drug is applied via transfusion for half an hour. During treatment, there are no side-effects that may impair the patient’s quality of life, such as hair loss or nausea.

What kind of positive effect does the treatment have on the cancer?

It improves the patients’ quality and duration of life significantly. Our patients have shown more than 5 years of life expectancy after the tratment. Also, the symptoms like diarrhea, hypoglicemia and rash on the face are largely eliminated. The pains that result from bone metastasis can be controlled.

• Evaluations of 234 patients with neuroendocrine tumor who’ve been traeated by us show that Lu-177-DOTA-TATE is a very effective and helpful method of treatment.
• It can be seen that it can prolong the patient’s cancer-free lifetime up to 56 months. This duration is way higher than other forms of drug treatments.
• With other drug treatments, this duration is on average 12-24 months.
• Also, Lu-177-DOTA-TATE treatment doesn’t cause any significant side-effects. It doesn’t cause any life-quality impairing side-effects like exhaustion, fatigue, loss of appetite, sores on hands and feet like other drug treatments.
• Quite the opposite, with this treatment, patients who experience an overall improvement in the quality of life can spend their prolonged and better life with their relatives and loved ones.