Opinion statement
Small bower cancer is a rare disease, despite its incidence is increasing in the last decade. Both benign and malignant tumors can arise from the small intestine. The main histological cancer types are adenocarcinomas, neuroendocrine tumors, sarcomas, gastrointestinal stromal tumors (GISTs), and lymphomas. Due to the rarity of these malignances, all the currently available data are based on small studies or retrospective series, although recent breakthroughs are redirecting our approach to these patients. Immunotherapy for small bowel adenocarcinomas, several multikinase inhibitors in resistant GIST patients, as well as everolimus and 177Lu-DOTATATE in neuroendocrine tumors are only few of the novel therapeutic options that have changed, or may change in the future, the therapeutic landscape of these rare cancers. Larger and more powerful studies on the molecular profile of these tumors may lead to a better design of clinical trials, which eventually would provide our patients with more efficacious treatments to improve both overall survival and quality of life.
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This manuscript was partly supported in part by the National Cancer Institute (grant number P30CA014089), the Gloria Borges WunderGlo Foundation-The Wunder Project, the Dhont Family Foundation, the San Pedro Peninsula Cancer Guild, the Daniel Butler Research Fund, and the Call to Cure Research Fund. The content is solely the responsibility of the authors and does not necessarily represent the official views of the National Cancer Institute or the National Institutes of Health.
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AP and FB drafted the manuscript. H-JL supervised the manuscript. All authors directly provided their contribution, read, and approved the final manuscript.
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Alberto Puccini declares that he has no conflict of interest.
Francesca Battaglin declares that she has no conflict of interest.
Heinz-Josef Lenz has received clinical trial financial support from Merck Serono and Roche and honoraria for advisory board membership and lectures from Bayer, Boehringer Ingelheim, Genentech, Merck Serono, and Roche.
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Puccini, A., Battaglin, F. & Lenz, HJ. Management of Advanced Small Bowel Cancer. Curr. Treat. Options in Oncol. 19, 69 (2018). https://doi.org/10.1007/s11864-018-0592-3
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s11864-018-0592-3