Neuroendocrine Tumors are Often Refractory to Chemotherapy
Now these neuroendocrine tumors especially the well differentiated neuroendocrine tumors are often refractory to chemotherapy.
The treatment of choice for these kind of tumors is a targeted therapy called PRRT
PRRT stands for peptide radioisotope therapy which basically uses small peptides which target the somatostatin retumor is injected intravenously it enters the bloodstream and it seeks out all those receptors which are expressed on the tumor cells And because this is a very very targeted process this kind of therapy only images or only treats the metastatic neuroendocrine tumorshe scan is called a Gallium-Dota knock or a Gallium-Dota Tate scan Now Dota is a chelator Gallium is the radioisotope and TOC or NOC or TATE these are just the names of the peptides which are used to label this particular kind of tumor so when this radiopharmaceutical which has got a radioactive tail and it has got a peptide which targets this particular kind of receptor on the neuroendocrine tumor is injected intravenously it enters the bloodstream and it seeks out all those receptors which are expressed on the tumor cells And because this is a very very targeted process this kind of therapy only images or only treats the metastatic neuroendocrine tumors and does not damage the surrounding cells because the surrounding cells do not express these somatostatin receptors.
