Pancreatic Neuroendocrine (PNET) Clinical Trial recruiting in Australia

The Unicorn Foundation encourages eligible patients to enrol or enquire about clinical trials that are focussed on their disease.

Historically, patients have had the impression that involvement in medical research was a desperate 'last ditch' measure, however, that is a misconception. Patients who are accepted (there are usually strict inclusion criteria) in trials are closely monitored and receive treatment by expert physicians. Phase 2 and 3 clinical trials look at the new treatment and assess how effective it is in comparison to current treatments. Some patients are recruited into trials as a primary intervention.

The costs of the treatments, tests and follow-up are paid for by the research funding organisations (eg pharmaceutical companies; Medical research institutes etc).

In Australia there is a new trial recruiting patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (PNETs). It is called the CO-OPERATE 2 trial which is looking at Efficacy of Everolimus Alone or in Combination with Pasreotide LAR in Advanced PNET. Dr Nicholas Pavlakis (Sydney) and Dr David Wyld (Brisbane) are investigators in this trial and further information can be found at http://clinicaltrials.gov/ct2/show/NCT01374451.

Dr John Leyden