Aim: To study the clinical profile, treatment and survival outcomes for advanced neuroendocrine tumour (NET) patients in Australian regional and remote settings.

Methods: We reviewed all adult patients who were diagnosed with NETs between 1994 and 2012.  Patient data was extracted from electronic databases of The Townsville Cancer Centre.  Remoteness was based on postcodes with patients stratified as regional or rural North Queensland according to Australian Standard Geographical Classification (ASGC).Overall survival was studied using survival analysis.

Results: Data from seventy-nine (79) patients were  included in the study. There were 34 deaths at study cutoff point. Median overall survival of NETs patients in rural areas is significantly less than those living in regional areas (1613 days vs 2935 days respectively). Disease free survival of patients who had specialised scans was superior to those who did not have access to these scans (150 days vs 1095 days). Overall survival (1603 days vs 2889 days) and progression free survival (365 days vs 1365 days) of patients with functional tumours is significantly better than patients with non-functional tumours. Patients who received somatostatin analogues have prolonged overall survival; however, this finding was not statistically significant (2741 days vs 1724 days).

Conclusion: Remoteness has a negative impact on overall survival of NETs patients. This outcome may be due to varied access to health services and/or lack of access to specialised scans and medical and surgical expertise.

Key words: neuroendocrine tumour, survival, rural, remote.