Interferon α (IFN-α) vs. the combination IFN-α and octreotide LAR in the treatment of patients with well differentiated neuroendocrine tumors (NET) of various localizations

Abstract

It is still unknown whether the combination of IFN-α with octreotide has benefit compared with IFN-α alone. We compared efficacy and toxicyty of IFN-α and IFN-α plus octreotide in first line of therapy of patients with NETs. There was trend to longer TTP in lung NETs pts comparing with GEP NETs pts treated with IFN-α. IFN-α may be a therapy of choice in pts with well differentiated lung NETs as first line treatment. IFN-α have a similar toxicity profile comparing with IFN-α combined with octreotide.

Keywords

• neuroendocrine tumors
• interferon α