Gemcitabine and oxaliplatin combination chemotherapy for metastatic well-differentiated neuroendocrine carcinomas: a single-center experience.

Background: Beyond the usual regimens based on streptozocin and doxorubicin or 5-fluorouracil, no second-line therapy of metastatic neuroendocrine tumor has gained wide acceptance. Gemcitabine and oxaliplatin are generally well tolerated and have shown activity against a wide range of malignancies. The authors assessed the efficacy of gemcitabine-oxaliplatin combination (GEMOX) in the treatment of patients with metastatic neuroendocrine tumors.

Methods: Twenty consecutive patients with progressive disease were treated with GEMOX, in most cases after failure of other chemotherapy regimens (median=2). Patients were followed for evidence of toxicity, response, and survival. Two patients were chemotherapy-naive at treatment initiation and were excluded from the efficacy analysis.

Results: Toxicity was manageable overall; however, 6 (30%) patients had to discontinue treatment because of oxaliplatin-induced neurotoxicity (grade 2). Three (17%) of 18 patients had a partial response, median progression-free survival was 7.0 months, and median overall survival was 23.4 months.

Conclusions: Gemcitabine-oxaliplatin combination shows interesting activity and is well tolerated in pretreated patients with neuroendocrine tumors.