Korean J Gastroenterol.  2008 Sep;52(3):171-178.

Pancreatic Endocrine Tumors: Clinical Manifestations and Predictive Factors Associated with Survival

• Paik WH
• Yoon YB
• Lee SH
• Park JK
• Woo SM
• Yang KY
• Seo JK
• Ryu JK
• Kim YT

Abstract

BACKGROUND/AIMS: Since pancreatic endocrine tumors (PET) are rare and heterogeneous diseases, their survival and prognosis are not well known. Due to recent advances in CT/MRI technology, incidentalomas of the pancreas are detected with increasing frequency. This study presents results of clinical manifestations of PET and predictive factors associated with survival.
METHODS
From year 1990 through 2006, medical records of 98 patients (56 men, 42 women) who were diagnosed as PET pathologically at Seoul National University Hospital were reviewed retrospectively.
RESULTS
Ages ranged from 17 to 76 years (mean 51.6+/-1.3 years) with a mean follow-up of 3.6+/-0.4 years (range 0-10.1 years). Overall 5-year survival rate was 68.1%, and 5-year survival rate of the patients who had distant metastases at initial diagnosis was 43.9%. Functioning tumors [hazard ratio (HR) 0.229, 95% confidence interval (CI) 0.056-0.943, p=0.041] and lymph node or liver metastases (HR 5.537, 95% CI 2.106-14.555, p<0.001) were the significant prognostic factors associated with survival rate. However, tumor size and pathology showed no significant association with survival.
CONCLUSIONS
Because small and pathologically benign nature do not predict good prognosis in PET, aggressive treatment such as curative resection would be considered initially even in the case of incidental PET.

Keyword

Pancreatic neoplasm; Islet cell; Survival; Prognosis

MeSH Terms

Adenoma, Islet Cell/*diagnosis/epidemiology/*mortality
Adolescent
Adult
Aged
Combined Modality Therapy
Female
Follow-Up Studies
Humans
Liver Neoplasms/diagnosis/secondary
Lymph Nodes/pathology
Male
Middle Aged
Multivariate Analysis
Pancreatic Neoplasms/*diagnosis/epidemiology/*mortality
Predictive Value of Tests
Prognosis
Retrospective Studies
Survival Rate
Tomography, X-Ray Computed
Treatment Outcome