Biomarkers for Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Neoplasms (PanNENs) Management—An Updated Review

Abstract

Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNENs) are rare sporadic cancers or develop as part of hereditary syndromes. PanNENs can be both functioning and non-functioning based on whether they produce bioactive peptides. Some PanNENs are well differentiated while others-poorly. Symptoms, thus, depend on both oncological and hormonal causes. PanNEN diagnosis and treatment benefit from and in some instances are guided by biomarker monitoring. However, plasmatic monoanalytes are only suggestive of PanNEN pathological status and their positivity is typically followed by deepen diagnostic analyses through imaging techniques. There is a strong need for new biomarkers and follow-up modalities aimed to improve the outcome of PanNEN patients. Liquid biopsy follow-up, i.e., sequential analysis on tumor biomarkers in body fluids offers a great potential, that need to be substantiated by additional studies focusing on the specific markers and the timing of the analyses. This review provides the most updated panorama on PanNEN biomarkers.

CD47 expression and CD163+ macrophages correlated with prognosis of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor

“…In line with their findings, in this study, the expression of CD47 in PanNETs detected by IHC was conspicuously higher than that in adjacent non-tumor tissues. Considering the potential origin of PanNET [ 35 ], we further compared CD47 expression in normal pancreatic islets with that in PanNETs. CD47 expression displayed a significantly increased expression in PanNETs, providing more evidence for the concept that the increase of CD47 expression in tumor would aid escape immunosurveillance of the host.…”

Determination of neuron-specific enolase in patients with midgut-type tumour treated with somatostatin analogues

“…It is worth noting that the increase in NSE was statistically greater in patients with disease progression, 25% liver involvement, or G2 grading. The level of NSE correlates with tumour differentiation, aggressiveness, and tumour size and is inversely related to general survival and progression-free survival [16]. It is currently believed that the NSE level depends on the presence of metastases, their location, number, and size and correlates with response to treatment with somatostatin analogues [17].…”

PACAP and PAC1 Receptor Expression in Human Insulinomas

“…There is a trend for combination of biomarkers (e.g. neurone specific enolase, pancreatic polypeptide) with Cg A (Bocchini et al 2020;Chen et al 2019). The neuropeptide PACAP has an important role in the development of nervous system and of peripheral organs (Fulop et al 2019;Sandor et al 2016;Xu et al 2016).…”