Timothy J. Hobday, MD, of the Mayo Clinic in Rochester, Minnesota, discussed the findings of the RADIANT-2 re-analysis at the 2012 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Speaking from the perspective of a clinical researcher, he said, “the conclusions of the study are reasonable” and provide “valuable hypothesis-generating data to inform future trial design.”

The heterogeneity of neuroendocrine tumors continues to challenge researchers, he said, highlighting the importance of finding prognostic biomarkers and incorporating them into trial design. Quality-of-life measures should also be incorporated in trials that have a progression-free survival endpoint, especially for a disease that is “potentially indolent.”

Speaking as a clinician, Dr. Hobday said that everolimus has “a known, reasonable safety profile,” noted that “progressive metastatic carcinoid remains without adequate systemic therapies,” and maintained that everolimus is “a reasonable option for therapy for those patients with progressive carcinoid tumor who are in need of systemic therapy.” ■

Disclosure: Dr. Hobday reported research funding from Novartis.