Developments in interventional management of hepatic metastases from neuroendocrine tumours

Abstract

Neuroendocrine tumours commonly metastasise to the liver, particularly those arising from the intestinal tract and pancreas. Whilst surgery offers the only approach with intent to cure, the vast majority of patients with neuroendocrine liver metastases are ineligible. Liver-directed interventional therapies seek to exploit the patho-anatomy of the blood supply of hepatic metastases to deliver therapy to liver deposits. This may involve percutaneous ablation, bland embolization, or the selective infusion of chemotherapeutics, targeted agents or radiolabelled embolic material. Retrospective case series evidence has characterised objective response rates, disease control rates, and longer-term outcomes associated with each approach. Recent advances in this field include ongoing comparative trials of different techniques, but more importantly, combinations of interventional liver-directed therapies and other systemic therapy in multimodal treatment concepts.