1. ¹Medical Oncology, Department of Human Pathology and Oncology, Siena University School of Medicine, Viale Bracci 11, 53100, Siena, Italy
2. ²Medical Pathology Section, Department of Human Pathology and Oncology, Siena University School of Medicine, Viale Bracci 11, 53100, Siena, Italy
3. ³Second Division of General Surgery, Siena University School of Medicine, Viale Bracci 11, 53100, Siena, Italy
4. ⁴Division of Thoracic Surgery, Siena University School of Medicine, Viale Bracci 11, 53100, Siena, Italy

Correspondence: Professor G Francini, E-mail: correale@unisi.it

Received 24 January 2007; Revised 15 March 2007; Accepted 19 March 2007; Published online 17 April 2007.

Abstract

We report the results of a phase II trial in patients with metastatic endocrine tumours from different sites, which aimed to evaluate the anti-tumour activity and toxicity of a cisplatinum and etoposide regimen administered in combination with the somatostatin agonist lanreotide given in slow release formulation. Between January 1999 and November 2003, 27 patients with histological diagnoses of endocrine tumours with different degrees of differentiation, excluding well differentiated carcinoid neoplasms, received intravenous (i.v.) administration of cisplatinum (30 mg m^-2) and etoposide (100 mg m^-2) on days 1–3 and intramuscular administration of 60 mg lanreotide on day 1, in a 21-day cycle. All of the patients were evaluable for toxicity and response. The treatment was very well tolerated as no grade 4 toxicity was observed. Four patients achieved a complete response, six a partial response, 12 experienced disease stabilisation and five disease progression. The average time to progression and to survival were 9 and 24 months respectively. These results suggest that this chemo-hormone therapy regimen is well tolerated and active in patients with non-well differentiated endocrine tumours.