Efficacy of somatostatine analogues in survival and quality of life of a frail patient with poorly differentiated biliary neuroendocrine tumour

Abstract

We describe the case of a 71-year-old woman with poorly differentiated neuroendocrine tumor of third distal biliary duct and osteolytic metastasis. The patient was evaluated as a third stage of Balducci’s criteria for the recognition of frailty. The patient received radiotherapy and octreotide LAR. This treatment allowed a good tumour progression rate (18 months), a good quality of life and a good survival (35 months). The case report describes the role of octreotide in the therapy of neuroendocrine tumours, and underlines the importance of a multidisciplinary management of cancer in frail patients.