Copyright
©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Jul 28, 2020; 26(28): 4036-4054
Published online Jul 28, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i28.4036
Published online Jul 28, 2020. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v26.i28.4036
Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors: Therapeutic challenges and research limitations
Gabriel Benyomo Mpilla, Philip Agop Philip, Asfar Sohail Azmi, Department of Oncology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Detroit, MI 48201, United States
Bassel El-Rayes, Department of Hematology Oncology, Emory Winship Institute, Atlanta, GA 30322, United States
Author contributions: Gabriel BM, Philip AP, El-Rayes B and Asfar SA contributed to concept design, literature search, writing and editing the manuscript.
Supported by NIH , No. R01 CA240607-01A1 ; and SKY Foundation Inc .
Conflict-of-interest statement: Authors declare no conflict of interests for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Asfar Sohail Azmi, PhD, Associate Professor, Department of Oncology, Wayne State University School of Medicine, Karmanos Cancer Institute, 4100 John R, HWCRC 732, Detroit, MI 48201, United States. azmia@karmanos.org
Received: April 21, 2020
Peer-review started: April 31, 2020
First decision: July 8, 2020
Revised: June 10, 2020
Accepted: July 16, 2020
Article in press: July 16, 2020
Published online: July 28, 2020
Peer-review started: April 31, 2020
First decision: July 8, 2020
Revised: June 10, 2020
Accepted: July 16, 2020
Article in press: July 16, 2020
Published online: July 28, 2020
Core Tip
Core tip: Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors (PNETs) can cause severe morbidity due to excessive hormones production and overall tumor mass. The majority of approved therapeutic options in PNETs lack objective response suggesting that there is still a void in the understanding of the biology of this neoplasia. With the rising incidence and the underestimated prevalence of PNETs in the United States, it is paramount to discuss the challenges associated with the study and the management of this intractable disease for better patient outcomes. In this paper we elaborate on the comprehensive challenges and discuss novel and emerging therapeutic target in PNETs.