neuroendocrine carcinoma questions - 1246119

annelis1
Posts:1

I posted a few weeks ago and got great feedback. I have more questions.
Dx 3/12 Neuroendocrine Carcinoma, high grade, large cell breast primary- clean Octreoscan and PET scan in March
6 cycles Avastin, carboplatin and camptosar
Rt mastectomy 7/23 with positive nodes, axillary dissection
My Onc now wants to use Afinitor and a hormone blocker. Does this sound like a good approach?
Is radiation ever done concurrently with Afinitor?
Thanks in advance,
Anne

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Reply # - July 31, 2012, 05:38 AM

catdander
Posts:

hello Annelis,
I'm sorry for not responding sooner. I'm glad we've been helpful in the past and will ask our breast cancer specialist to respond to your request.

I hope your are doing ok,
Janine

P.S. If you will make a "signature" in your "forum profile" you won't need to repeat the details of your history every time you have a question. It will show up on the bottom of your posts. You can access your forum profile by clicking on your user name on the left of your post above.

Reply # - July 31, 2012, 07:57 AM

dr cianfrocca
Posts: 49

Afinitor is currently FDA approved for neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas, not breast. For breast cancer, the FDA approval is in the metastatic setting with aromasin for postmenopausal women with ER-positive, HER2-negative breast cancer. I'm not sure what you mean by hormone blocker but if you are premenopausal or perimenopausal and your tumor is ER-positive, it would be standard practice to give you tamoxifen for 5 years after surgery. If you are postmenopausal and your tumor is ER-positive it would be standard practice to give you an aromatase inhibitor (arimidex, femara or aromasin) for 5 years after surgery although tamoxifen is an acceptable alternative. There are however little data to support using afinitor in the way you describe and it can add significant side effects to the hormonal therapy.

Dr Cianfrocca

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