The potential role of somatostatin analogues in the treatment of gastrointestinal (GI) cancers.

150 Background: Somatostatin receptors (sstr) are expressed in various normal and malignant tissues, including non-neuroendocrine GI solid tumors. Gastric cancer (GC) cells mainly express sstr2 and sstr5, colorectal cancer (CRC) cells predominantly express sstr1 followed by sstr5 and sstr2, and hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) cells express mainly sstr5 as well as sstr1,2,3. Somatostatin analogues (SAs) may have direct and indirect antitumor activity. Octreotide and lanreotide primarily target sstr2, whereas the new agent pasireotide has high affinity for sstr1,2,3 and sstr5. Methods: Published data evaluating the antitumor properties of SAs in GI tumors were reviewed. Results: The table lists the results of clinical studies in which SAs were evaluated as antitumor therapies in GI cancers. Conclusions: Although octreotide and lanreotide are efficacious in the treatment of symptoms of neuroendocrine tumors, these agents have demonstrated mixed results in the antitumor treatment of non-neuroendocrine GI tumor...