Management and outcomes of patients for non-functioning pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours: a multi-institutional analysis.

Abstract

To analysed the short- and long-term outcomes of patients who underwent surgical resection for non-functioning pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours (NF-PNETs) to gain insights into treatment approaches for this rare and heterogeneous entity. All patients who underwent surgical resection for NF-PNETs at The Second Affiliated Hospital of Guangzhou Medical University, and West China Hospital, Sichuan University, from 2009 to 2019 were retrospectively reviewed. The data of patients was including perioperative management, pathologic analysis and follow-up. A total of 119 cases with histologically or cytologically confirmed NF-PNETs, The mean age of the patients was 52, and 56.3% were female. Twenty-three patients received post-operative adjuvant therapy, and five of nine (55.6%) patients with distant metastasis showed recurrence 14(60.9%) G2/G3 patients without distant metastasis received post-operative therapy with octreotide. Of these 14 patients, 3 (21.4%) revealed recurrence. Univariate analysis indicated that symptoms (P=0.03), tumour size >4 cm (P=0.029), ENETS stages III-IV (P < 0.001), positive lymph nodes (P < 0.001), vascular/perineural invasion (P < 0.001), and pathology grade G2 were associated with significantly higher risks of recurrence; age, gender, surgery type, and tumour location were not. Multivariate analysis revealed that positive lymph nodes (P< 0.001), vascular/peripheral invasion (P < 0.001), and pathology grade G3 (P=0.03) are significant prognostic factors of tumour recurrence. Positive lymph nodes, vascular/peripheral invasion and pathology grade G3 were related to recurrence of NF-PNETs. Lymph node resection is recommend when FNA biopsy indicates pathology grade G3 for patients with NF-PNETs.