Metronomic capecitabine in advanced well or moderately differentiated neuroendocrine carcinomas.

e13130 Background: Conventional chemotherapy is not a standard of care for well or moderately differentiated neuroendocrine carcinomas (NECs). 5-fluorouracil (5FU) as a protracted venous infusion (PVI) showed some activity in this setting. Metronomic capecitabine (MC) is the oral alternative to PVI 5FU, avoiding a central venous device and elastomeric pump. We report our experience with MC in patients with advanced NECs. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed the clinical records of 23 patients with metastatic well or moderately differentiated NECs treated with MC at the European Institute of Oncology from Milan, between July 2005 and August 2009. Results: M/F ratio was 13/10, median age 56 years (range: 30-77). Seventeen patients (73%) had well- differentiated NECs, 1 had typical and 5 atypical PCs. Primary sites of tumor were pancreas/ileum/thyroid/lung/unknown in 48%, 9%, 4%, 26%, and 13% of patients, respectively. The Ki-67 was < 2% in 2 patients (9%), 3-19% in 16 (70%), and not performed in the other c...