Cabozantinib Secures FDA Approval for Treating Advanced Neuroendocrine Tumors

Published: 28 Mar 2025

Author: Precedence Research

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The Food and Drug Administration or FDA has approved cabozantinib, an oral tyrosine kinase inhibitor, for patients with advanced neuroendocrine tumors (NETs). This is a great source of encouragement for oncology as it sets out a new standard of care for a patient population battling with limited treatment options. The approval comes on the back of the CABINET phase 3 clinical trial. This trial reported that cabozantinib significantly improved outcomes in patients compared with a placebo.

It has been led by Dr. Jennifer Chan, MPH, on behalf of Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. The study further noted that the drug enables patients having advanced NETs to prolong PFS. Neuroendocrine tumors present a unique challenge in the world of oncology because they can demonstrate in so many ways and can often reveal themselves at late stages. So, with this approval, cabozantinib can now be said to provide a new option for extending survival and improving the quality of life for these patients.

Understanding the CABINET Trial

The CABINET trial has been designed concerning the effectiveness of cabozantinib into two distinct groups. Trials are undertaken by the Alliance for Clinical Trials in Oncology; Findings from trials suggest that patients on cabozantinib treatment lived longer without disease progression compared with control patients on placebo. Hence, cabozantinib acts to slow the disease progression by targeting pathways that support tumor growth and angiogenesis, thereby disrupting the conditions that allow NETs to thrive and spread.

• In August 2023, the Data Monitoring Committee unblinded the trial. Cabozantinib side effects include hypertension, fatigue, and diarrhea, while manageable with proper medical care. Being an actionable drug in neuroendocrine oncology, cabozantinib benefits from a wide array of mechanisms.

Impact on the Neuroendocrine Cancer Landscape

The FDA approved Cabozantinib for the treatment of advanced neuroendocrine tumors (NETs), an arduous battle for patients whose cancer has continued progressive growth and/or metastasis. Others remain in traditional treatments- surgery, molecular targeted therapy, chemotherapy, and other localized treatment methods. Dr. Jennifer Chan, the principal investigator of the CABINET trial, stated that cabozantinib marks a substantial advance toward improving patient outcomes with NETs. The final results of the CABINET trial were presented during the 2024 ESMO Congress and were published in The New England Journal of Medicine.

Future Prospects and Ongoing Research

Cabozantinib, a tyrosine kinase inhibitor that is used in the treatment of advanced neuroendocrine tumors, has received FDA approval, improved progression-free survival by controlling tumor growth and angiogenesis, and now offers hope for patients facing an otherwise limited treatment landscape and sets a new standard of care. The NovoCyte Opteon Spectral Flow Cytometer, introduced by Agilent Technologies, is a breakthrough in cell analysis that can analyze more than 40 markers at once, allowing for ever more sophisticated research in immunology, oncology, and beyond. These two events encapsulate the need for targeted therapies and precision diagnostics to secure a new future in healthcare aimed at providing better patient care and a greater understanding of science.