Temozolomide and Survivin Long Peptide Vaccine (SurVaxM) for the Treatment of Patients With Progressing Metastatic Neuroendocrine Tumors

Temozolomide and Survivin Long Peptide Vaccine (SurVaxM) for the Treatment of Patients With Progressing Metastatic Neuroendocrine Tumors

What are cancer vaccines?I remember seeing a comment by a NET Specialist on twitter saying, "We need vaccines".  This was in response to a tweet from another NET Specialist reporting dismal data from an immunotherapy drug for Neuroendocrine Carcinomas. In 2020/2021, the word vaccine has been used a lot, but this specialist was not inferring anti-viral treatment, he was talking about "cancer vaccines", an emerging discipline in science where vaccines act as an immunostimulant to treat cancer.  This prompted me to look around and found this trial which may be of interest to you.  However, before anyone gets too excited,…
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Chemotherapy for Neuroendocrine Cancer

Chemotherapy for Neuroendocrine Cancer

Edited and checked March 2026 One of the unusual aspects of Neuroendocrine Cancer is that chemotherapy is not normally considered as a 'standard of care' or first-line treatment, unlike many other cancers. One exception is high grade (Grade 3) where it is very often a first and/or second-line therapy. This is particularly the case with poorly differentiated Neuroendocrine disease, by default labelled as Neuroendocrine Carcinoma (NEC). Many people think Chemotherapy has a short life span due to recent advances in medical science, some citing Immunotherapy as its replacement. However, it's far too early to write off chemotherapy which is still…
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A Phase II Clinical Trial of Nivolumab and Temozolomide for Neuroendocrine Neoplasms

A Phase II Clinical Trial of Nivolumab and Temozolomide for Neuroendocrine Neoplasms

What is Nivolumab (Opdivo) Nivolumab is a type of cancer treatment drug called an immunotherapy. It is a treatment for a number of different types of cancer. You might have it as part of a clinical trial for other types of cancer. What is Temozolomide (Temodal) Temozolomide is a type of chemotherapy.  It is well known in Neuroendocrine Cancer as the TEM in CAPTEM Trial Summary The purpose of the trial.  Treatment options are sometimes limited in patients with metastatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (NEN). The primary endpoint was response rate (using RECIST 1.1). Secondary endpoints included progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival…
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CAPTEM for Neuroendocrine Tumours

CAPTEM for Neuroendocrine Tumours

What is CAPTEM?  Capecitabine is an oral drug used alone or with other drugs to treat certain types of colorectal cancer and breast cancer. It is also being studied in the treatment of other types of cancer including in combination with a second drug. Capecitabine is taken up by cancer cells and breaks down into fluorouracil, a substance that kills cancer cells. Also called Xeloda.  Note -Capecitabine is an oral Oral 5-FU prodrugs which are medications designed to be taken by mouth and converted into the active chemotherapy agent 5-flourouracil (5-FU) within the body, aiming for higher tumour selectivity and…
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Treatment for Neuroendocrine Cancer – a summary for patients

Treatment for Neuroendocrine Cancer – a summary for patients

  1. Scope This summary provides an overview of the types of therapy known for treating Neuroendocrine Cancer. They will have been approved at least by one national or regional approval agency, may not be available or approved in your own country; and may appear in clinical guidelines for the treatment of Neuroendocrine Cancer. Clinical trials will not be covered, although it's noted that some of the approved treatments listed may be in follow on trials either to prove new coverage or used in combination with another drug.  For a list of clinical trials covered by the author, click here.…
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Clinical Trial: PRRT and Chemo combination therapy

Clinical Trial: PRRT and Chemo combination therapy

Update 2022:  Trial complete.  Results:The final results of this trial were presented at ASCO 2022 where it was concluded as follows:"CONTROL NETs is the first randomized trial to demonstrate efficacy for PRRT in pNETs, in addition to a standard of care. Extended follow up confirms durable CAPTEM/PRRT activity, with superior PFS in pNETs. Late haematologic toxicity was seen in both mNET PRRT arms but was not higher with additional CAPTEM. The activity of CAPTEM/PRRT in pNETs should be tested in the phase III setting" - click here to read the abstract. Combination treatments are common in chemotherapy, but this trial was…
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