Research and clinical trials for neuroendocrine cancer
Researchers around the world are looking at improving the diagnosis and treatment of neuroendocrine cancer.
Go to Cancer Research UK's clinical trials database if you are looking for a trial for neuroendocrine cancer in the UK. You need to talk to your specialist if there are any trials that you think you might be able to take part in.
Research and clinical trials
All cancer treatments must be fully researched before they can be used for everyone. This is so we can be sure that:
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they work
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they work better than the treatments already available
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they are safe
To make sure the research is accurate, each trial has certain entry conditions for who can take part. These are different for each trial.
Hospitals do not take part in every clinical trial. Some trials are only done in a small number of hospitals, or in one area of the country. You may need to travel quite far if you take part in these trials.
Some of the trials on this page have now stopped recruiting people. It takes time before the results are available. This is because the trial team follow the patients for a period of time and collect and analyse the results. We have included this ongoing research to give examples of the type of research being carried out in neuroendocrine cancer.
Research into diagnosis
Doctors are always looking for better ways to diagnose people with cancer.
Researchers are taking blood, urine and tissue samples from people with symptoms that could be due to cancers in the pancreas. This includes pancreatic neuroendocrine cancers. They are looking for certain 
. And they want to find out why some people are more likely to develop cancer than others.
Research into treatment
Researchers want to improve treatment for people with neuroendocrine cancer.
Targeted drugs and immunotherapy drugs
Targeted drugs change the way that cells work. For example, they can block signals that tell cells to grow. Immunotherapies can boost the body’s own immune system to fight off or kill cancer cells.
There are different types of targeted cancer drugs and immunotherapies. Researchers are looking at different drugs for fast growing (high grade) neuroendocrine cancer. These include:
- pembrolizumab
- lenvatinib
Researchers are looking at these drugs with the chemotherapy drugs carboplatin and etoposide. Pembrolizumab and lenvatinib are already treatments for some other types of cancer. But not yet neuroendocrine cancer. And not with each other or with carboplatin and etoposide.
Researchers around the world are looking at other immunotherapy and targeted drugs. These are for high grade neuroendocrine cancers. Drugs include:
- ipilimumab
- nivolumab
- atezolizumab
- durvalumab
- belzutifan
Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT)
PRRT is a type of radioisotope therapy. These treatments use medicines to treat cancer. You have the radioactive substance as a drip into a vein.
Researchers are looking at:
- how well PRRT helps people with NETs that have spread to other parts of the body and who can't have surgery
- how well PRRT helps people after surgery to remove
secondary cancer from the liver - giving a drug before PRRT to see if it makes it work better for some people with NETs that have spread
Research into the quality of life
Doctors are looking at how the treatment and illness affect people with neuroendocrine cancer. These are called quality of life studies.
One study is looking at how a mobile application () might help with recording symptoms and side effects of treatment. Researchers want to see if using this type of technology can improve quality of life for people with neuroendocrine cancer.
