FDA Approves Cabometyx for Pancreatic NETs

NET are heterogeneous tumors that arise from the neuroendocrine cells of the digestive tract and other organs, such as the lung and pancreas. Most patients with advanced disease face a poor prognosis.

“The characteristics of NET vary widely from patient to patient, and very few treatment options have demonstrated the ability to improve outcomes across such a heterogeneous population,” said Jennifer Chan, M.D., M.P.H., study chair for the CABINET trial, Clinical Director of the Gastrointestinal Cancer Center and Director of the Program in Carcinoid and Neuroendocrine Tumors at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute. “It was encouraging to see that cabozantinib resulted in significant delays in disease progression in the CABINET trial—regardless of primary tumor site and grade. This FDA approval marks a meaningful advancement, which may establish an important new treatment option for patients, without limitations based on somatostatin receptor expression and functional status.”

The FDA approval—adding to five previous approvals for Cabometyx—is based on results from CABINET, a phase III pivotal trial evaluating Cabmetyx  compared with placebo in two cohorts of patients with previously treated NET: advanced pNET and advanced epNET. Final progression-free survival results were presented at the 2024 European Society for Medical Oncology Congress and published in The New England Journal of Medicine.  (previously cited). In January 2025, the National Comprehensive Cancer Network Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology for Neuroendocrine and Adrenal Tumors were updated to include cabozantinib as a category 1 preferred regimen for the majority of well-differentiated advanced NET following specific treatments, and as a category 2A preferred regimen for other forms of advanced NET, depending on tumor grade and different requirements for prior therapy.