Since neuroendocrine tumors are less lethal than true pancreatic cancer, doing so may not have made much difference.
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Neuroendocrine tumors can vary widely, producing higher or lower levels of excess hormones.
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Both are used now for kidney cancer, but have shown powerful promise in delaying the growth of nasty neuroendocrine tumors.
It is a rare type of cancer called pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor that afflicts the hormone producing islet cells in the pancreas.
Its onset probably has to do with significant changes in the neuroendocrine (brain-hormone) system leading up to and occurring just after birth.
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The drug works by hitting a key growth-promoting node involved in cell growth called mTOR that may go out of control in neuroendocrine cancers.
While there are some published studies describing liver transplant as a treatment option for neuroendocrine pancreatic tumors, it isn't a common approach, experts said.
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But neuroendocrine tumors can cause hormone levels to go haywire.
Statistics for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, a rare tumor type that is not as aggressive as standard pancreatic cancer, are murkier and less reliable given how few patients there are.
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In an unusual move, it plans to test Afinitor simultaneously on five other tumor types, including stomach, breast and neuroendocrine tumors (the type Apple's Steve Jobs has suffered from).
"The two different types have fairly dramatically different clinical behaviors, " said Matthew Kulke, director of the carcinoid and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor program at the Harvard-affiliated Dana-Farber Cancer Institute in Boston.
WSJ: Apple Co-Founder Steve Jobs's Rare Disease Ran Predictable Course
But Mr. Jobs had what is called a neuroendocrine pancreatic tumor, a type that accounts for fewer than 5% of pancreatic cancers and, experts say, differs substantially from the more common kind.
WSJ: Apple Co-Founder Steve Jobs's Rare Disease Ran Predictable Course
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