Dr. Hendifar Discusses the Future Treatment of NETs

Andrew E. Hendifar, MD, medical oncology lead for the Gastrointestinal Disease Research Group, Cedars-Sinai Medical Center, discusses the future treatment landscape for patients with neuroendocrine tumors (NETs).

The change in the treatment of NETs has been quite substantial over the last 5 years, explains Hendifar. However, there has been an immense number of breakthroughs in the last several years, and new treatments have been developed.

There are many types of treatments, such as peptide-receptor radionuclide therapy, targeted treatments, and new somatostatin analog treatments. According to Henfidar, there are things that we can do to help patients, and it seems like we are getting closer to achieving a better understanding of how to sequence treatments.

There are still remaining questions that need to be answered in the future, explains Hendifar. When does a patient need to see a multidisciplinary tumor team? When is the optimal time of surgery? Sequencing and synthesis of care, and putting these great new discoveries together in a certain treatment paradigm, is what physicians are going to be working on in the next few years.