Treatment

Treatment for a pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor varies based on the types of cells involved in your cancer, the extent and characteristics of your cancer, your preferences, and your overall health.

Options may include:

• Surgery. If the pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor is confined to the pancreas, treatment usually includes surgery. For cancers that occurs in the tail of the pancreas, surgery may involve removing the tail of the pancreas (distal pancreatectomy), leaving the head portion intact.

  Cancers that affect the head of the pancreas may require a Whipple procedure (pancreaticoduodenectomy), which involves removing the cancer and part or most of your pancreas.

• Peptide receptor radionuclide therapy (PRRT). PRRT combines a drug that targets cancer cells with a small amount of a radioactive substance that's injected into a vein. The medication sticks to the pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor cells hiding in the body. Over days to weeks, the medication delivers radiation directly to the cancer cells, causing them to die.

  One PRRT, lutetium Lu 177 dotatate (Lutathera), is used to treat advanced cancers.

• Targeted therapy. Targeted therapy uses medications that attack vulnerabilities in the cancer cells. Targeted therapy is used to treat certain advanced or recurrent pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.
• Radiofrequency ablation. Radiofrequency ablation involves applying energy waves to cancer cells, causing them to heat up and die.
• Treatment for cancer that spreads to the liver. Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors most often spread to the liver, and several treatments exist for this. Options include treatment to block blood flow to liver tumors (hepatic artery occlusion), treatment to deliver chemotherapy directly to the liver (chemoembolization), treatment to deliver radiation directly to the liver (radioembolization) and liver transplant.
• Chemotherapy. In certain situations, your doctor may recommend chemotherapy. This drug treatment uses chemicals to kill cancer cells.