Background Everolimus, an oral inhibitor of mammalian target of rapamycin (mTOR), has shown antitumor activity in patients with advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, in two phase 2 studies. We evaluated the agent in a prospective, randomized, phase 3 study. Methods We randomly assigned 410 patients who had advanced, low-grade or intermediate-grade pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors with radiologic progression within the previous 12 months to receive everolimus, at a dose of 10 mg once daily (207 patients), or placebo (203 patients), both in conjunction with best supportive care. The primary end point was progression-free survival in an intention-to-treat analysis. In the case of patients in whom radiologic progression occurred during the study, the treatment assignments could be revealed, and patients who had been randomly assigned to placebo were offered open-label everolimus. Results The median progression-free survival was 11.0 months with everolimus as compared with 4.6 months with placebo (hazard ratio for disease progression or death from any cause with everolimus, 0.35; 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.27 to 0.45; P<0.001), representing a 65% reduction in the estimated risk of progression or death. Estimates of the proportion of patients who were alive and progression-free at 18 months were 34% (95% CI, 26 to 43) with everolimus as compared with 9% (95% CI, 4 to 16) with placebo. Drug-related adverse events were mostly grade 1 or 2 and included stomatitis (in 64% of patients in the everolimus group vs. 17% in the placebo group), rash (49% vs. 10%), diarrhea (34% vs. 10%), fatigue (31% vs. 14%), and infections (23% vs. 6%), which were primarily upper respiratory. Grade 3 or 4 events that were more frequent with everolimus than with placebo included anemia (6% vs. 0%) and hyperglycemia (5% vs. 2%). The median exposure to everolimus was longer than exposure to placebo by a factor of 2.3 (38 weeks vs. 16 weeks). Conclusions Everolimus, as compared with placebo, significantly prolonged progression-free survival among patients with progressive advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors and was associated with a low rate of severe adverse events.

PurposeNo established treatment exists for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (NET) progression after failure of chemotherapy. Everolimus (RAD001), an oral inhibitor of mammalian target of rapamycin, in combination with octreotide has demonstrated encouraging antitumor activity in patients with NETs.Patients and MethodsThis open-label, phase II study assessed the clinical activity of everolimus in patients with metastatic pancreatic NETs who experienced progression on or after chemotherapy. Patients were stratified by prior octreotide therapy (stratum 1: everolimus 10 mg/d, n = 115; stratum 2: everolimus 10 mg/d plus octreotide long-acting release [LAR], n = 45). Tumor assessments (using Response Evaluation Criteria in Solid Tumors) were performed every 3 months. Chromogranin A (CgA) and neuron-specific enolase (NSE) were assessed monthly if elevated at baseline. Trough concentrations of everolimus and octreotide were assessed.ResultsBy central radiology review, in stratum 1, there were 11 partial responses (9.6%), 78 patients (67.8%) with stable disease (SD), and 16 patients (13.9%) with progressive disease; median progression-free survival (PFS) was 9.7 months. In stratum 2, there were two partial responses (4.4%), 36 patients (80%) with SD, and no patients with progressive disease; median PFS was 16.7 months. Patients with an early CgA or NSE response had a longer PFS compared with patients without an early response. Coadministration of octreotide LAR and everolimus did not impact exposure to either drug. Most adverse events were mild to moderate and were consistent with those previously seen with everolimus.ConclusionDaily everolimus, with or without concomitant octreotide LAR, demonstrates antitumor activity as measured by objective response rate and PFS and is well tolerated in patients with advanced pancreatic NETs after failure of prior systemic chemotherapy.

Elevated baseline CgA/NSE provided prognostic information on PFS and survival; early CgA/NSE responses are potential prognostic markers for treatment outcomes in patients with advanced pNET.