Current Clinical Trials

Patients with carcinoid tumors with gross regional lymphatic metastasis or local extension should be treated by aggressive surgical resection. If all visible malignant disease can be removed, long-term survival rates will be excellent.[1] However, late recurrences (after 5 or 10 years) do occur, implying the need for prolonged follow-up.

There is no known effective surgical adjuvant treatment and none should be attempted except as part of a clinical trial.

If the regional disease is found to be unresectable, palliative surgery, such as partial resection, cryoablation, radiofrequency ablation, or hepatic artery chemoembolization should be considered. Treatment should be customized for each patient depending on the growth of the tumor and/or development of symptoms since some patients with asymptomatic, unresectable disease will frequently have many months or even years of comfortable life with no further treatment.

Check for U.S. clinical trials from NCI's PDQ Cancer Clinical Trials Registry that are now accepting patients with regional gastrointestinal carcinoid tumor ¹. The list of clinical trials can be further narrowed by location, drug, intervention, and other criteria.

General information about clinical trials is also available from the NCI Web site ².

References

1. Moertel CG: Karnofsky memorial lecture. An odyssey in the land of small tumors. J Clin Oncol 5 (10): 1502-22, 1987.  [PUBMED Abstract]