The antidiarrheal efficacy of a proprietary amino acid mixture in neuroendocrine tumor (NET) patients.

Abstract

218 Background: Gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumor (GEPNET) incidence has risen 6-fold over past 3 decades. North American Neuroendocrine Tumor Society estimates that over 100,000 GEPNET patients are currently living in the United States. One of the common quality of life limiting symptom seen in GEPNET patient is diarrhea. Diarrhea in these patients could be due to excessive serotonin production, secondary to post-operative short gut syndrome, steatorrhea from somatostatin analogs, bile acid colitis or intestinal bacterial overgrowth. A novel amino acid based oral rehydration solution (enterade) is currently being evaluated in a Phase II clinical trial for antidiarrheal effects in post bone marrow transplant patients (NCT02919670). We conducted a pilot study of enterade in neuroendocrine tumor (NET's) patients with quality of life limiting diarrhea. Methods: Medical records of all the NET patients given enterade to alleviate symptomatic diarrhea were evaluated. Patients were treated at Markey Cancer Center between May 2017-June 2018. Results: Total 69 NETs patients were treated with enterade. Enterade was administered as 8 Oz bottle BID for 1 a week. Antidiarrheal efficacy data was available on 41 patients at the time of abstract submission. 15 patients had small bowel NETs, 5 had bronchial NETs, 1 had colorectal NETs, 3 had NETs of unknown primary, 3 had gastric NETS, 3 had pancreatic NETs and one had high grade neuroendocrine carcinoma of the prostate. Data regarding primary site was unavailable in 10/41 patients. 21 patients had history of prior bowel resection either for primary neuroendocrine tumor resection or debulking. 25 patients were on somatostatin analogs at the time of initiation of enterade. 31 out of 41 patients reported some reduction in diarrhea frequency. 21 out of these 41 patients reported at least a 50% reduction in diarrhea frequency. Conclusions: 75.6% (31/41) neuroendocrine tumor patients reported improvement in diarrhea frequency with enterade. 51.2% (21/41) reported more than 50% reduction in diarrhea frequency. A prospective Phase II study of enterade in neuroendocrine tumor patients with quality of life limiting diarrhea is currently planned.