Abstract

Background: Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) are rare and only account for 12.1% of all gastroenteropancreatic neuroendocrine tumors. The peak prevalence for PNET is in 30-60 years and 50% are located in the head, 26.9% in the body and 23.1% in the tail of the pancreas. In the present study, we report 11 cases of PNETs treated at our hospital over the last 8 years.
Material and method: 11 patients with PNETs between 2011 and 2014 underwent pancreatectomy or enucleation were enrolled. All patients were pathologically classified according to the criteria established by the WHO 2010 classification of endocrine tumors. Patients were evaluated according to age, sex, co-morbidity, surgery type, tumor size, operation time, hospital stay and follow-up.
Results: Of 11 patients 6 (54.5%) were male and 5 (45.5%) were female with a mean age of 54.09 ± 15.8 years. 4 (36.4%) have functional tumors and preoperative diagnosis confirmed insulinoma. The mean tumor size was 3.05 ± 2.37 cm (range between 0.5-8 cm). The tumor was located in head (54.5%), body (27.3%) and tail (18.2%) of pancreas. Surgical magrin was negative for all patients. The average operation time was 174.54 ± 81.4 minutes. Mean hospital stay of patients was 6.54 ± 2.58 days. Mean disease free survival was 12.55 ± 13.76 months.
Conclusion: PNETs are rare and slow-growing tumors but can be malignant and associated with an expected survival. Large studies should be performed evaluating the results of surgical and conservative treatment for PNETs.