Clinical Characteristics and Prognostic Factors of Early-Onset Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors

Abstract

Background: The incidence of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) has increased significantly. The purpose of this study was to analyze the clinical characteristics and prognosis of patients under 50 years old. Methods: Patients with PNETs recorded in the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database from 2004 to 2015 were analyzed. The clinical characteristics were analyzed by Chi-square test. The Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate overall survival (OS). Multivariate Cox proportional risk regression analysis was used to determine independent prognostic factors. Results: 2,303 patients included, of which 547 (23.8%) patients were younger than 50 years old. The number of younger patients has increased steadily, while the proportion in total PNETs decreased recently. Compared with older group, the proportion of the Black, grade I/II, and surgery were higher in early-onset PNETs. Liver was the most frequent metastatic site. There was no significant difference in the incidence of different metastatic sites between younger and older PNETs patients, while younger patients had better OS (P < 0.05). Grade, N stage, M stage, and surgery were independent prognostic factors for OS in early-onset PNETs. Conclusions: Younger patients have unique clinicopathological characteristics compared with older patients in PNETs. Better OS was observed in younger patients which might due to the higher proportion of well-differentiated tumor and surgery than older patients.

Preoperative prediction of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor grade based on 68Ga-DOTATATE PET/CT

“…These clinical factors were mostly existed in grade 2/3 of PNETs. Namely, the tumors in PNET patients with higher grade tend to show more infiltration into the surrounding tissue, higer N stage, and higher M stage than lower-grade tumors, which was consistently demonstrated in previous studies [ 40 , 41 ]. This might be the reason why advanced histologic grade commonly indicate a poor prognosis of PNETs [ 42 , 43 ].…”

A Practical and Easy-to-use Tool for Estimating the Overall Survival of Elderly Patients with Non-Functional Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors

“…It has been shown that smaller NF-pNETs also have some malignant potential [21], and aggressive surgery can improve the prognosis of patients [22]. In the study conducted by Shi et al, surgical intervention signi cantly enhanced patient prognosis, resulting in a more than 60% reduction in mortality risk for both younger and older individuals [23]. However, our study did not nd evidence supporting the improvement of survival outcomes in these patients through radiation therapy.…”

Clinical Characteristics and Prognosis of Adolescents and Young Adults with Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors: A Population-Based Study

“…(18) and Shi et al(19), which also reported a higher proportion of surgical treatments in the young group compared to the elderly. Furthermore, our study found that the proportion of black patients with PNETs was higher among young patients than elderly patients, consistent with the research by Shi et al(19) and Goksu et al(20).Additionally, we observed an upward trend in the incidence rate of PNETs among AYA patients. Similar trends have been reported by Goksu et al (20) and Yadav et al (21), indicating a rising incidence of PNETs among young individuals.…”