Neoadjuvant and Adjuvant Chemotherapeutic Strategy of Colorectal Mixed Adeno-Neuroendocrine Carcinomas

Mixed adeno-neuroendocrine carcinomas (MANEC) is a rare pathological diagnosis characterized by the presence of both adeno-carcinomatous and neuroendocrine differentiation with each component comprising 30% of the tumor. This literature review is aimed at the extraction of all existing clinical studies and reviews on colorectal MANEC so as to ensure that a suitable chemotherapeutic regimen is chosen to improve survival outcomes and prognosis of the disease. Parallel search strategies were employed to extract past 10 years articles from PubMed, PubMed Central and Google Scholar databases. A total of 30 records consisting of one clinical trial, five retrospective cohort studies, one case control study, one case series, 16 case reports and six review papers were shortlisted. Chemotherapeutic regimens that were administered as an adjuvant and a neoadjuvant therapy were analyzed with their survival outcomes. The overall survival rate of those administered with neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy can be as high as 57.4% and 69%, respectively. Multiple chemotherapeutic regimens were employed in colorectal MANEC and superiority of one regimen over the other can’t be established. Any drug or combination of drugs that is responsive against either of the MANEC components is found to be effective against the tumor. However, excellent responsiveness has been found with 5-fluorouracil regimens as a neoadjuvant therapy and platinum-based combinations as an adjuvant therapy. XELOX, streptozocin and S1 regimens also prove to be drugs of choice in aggressive and metastasized disease conditions. Our analysis allows for improved chemotherapeutic management of individuals with colorectal MANEC and establishes an increased potential for use of streptozocin therapy in the clinical setting. However, newer drugs like amrubicin require further research prior to describing its efficacy in colorectal MANEC.