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.