Prognostic validity of the American joint committee on cancer eighth edition staging system for well-differentiated pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors

Abstract

The American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) made improvements for staging pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs) in its 8th Edition; however, multicenter studies were not included. We collected multicenter datasets (n=1,086, between 2004 and 2018) to validate the value of AJCC 8 and other coexisting staging systems through univariate and multivariate analysis for well-differentiated (G1/G2) pNETs. Compared to other coexisting staging systems, AJCC 7 only included 12 (1.1%) patients with stage III tumors. Patients with European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society (ENETS) stage IIB disease had a higher risk of death than patients with stage IIIA (hazard ratio [HR]: 4.376 vs. 4.322). For the modified ENETS staging system, patients with stage IIB disease had a higher risk of death than patients with stage III (HR: 6.078 vs. 5.341). According to AJCC 8, the proportions of patients with stage I, II, III, and IV were 25.7%, 40.3%, 23.6%, and 10.4%, respectively. As the stage advanced, the median survival time decreased (NA, 144.7, 100.8, 72.0 months, respectively), and the risk of death increased (HR: II=3.145, III=5.925, and IV=8.762). These findings suggest that AJCC 8 had a more reasonable proportional distribution and the risk of death was better correlated with disease stage.