Nonfunctioning islet cell carcinoma of the pancreas: survival results in a contemporary series of 163 patients. Surgery 2001 Dec;130(6):1078-85
Date
12/14/2001Pubmed ID
11742342DOI
10.1067/msy.2001.118367Scopus ID
2-s2.0-0035668393 (requires institutional sign-in at Scopus site) 223 CitationsAbstract
BACKGROUND: The natural history of nonfunctioning islet cell carcinoma of the pancreas is poorly defined. We therefore reviewed our institutional experience during a period of 12 years to define more clearly the natural history of this disease as a basis for individual therapeutic recommendations.
METHODS: The records of all patients who had histologically or cytologically confirmed nonfunctioning islet cell carcinoma of the pancreas were retrospectively reviewed. Patients were grouped by extent of disease at diagnosis and by initial treatment. Survival distributions were estimated by Kaplan-Meier analysis.
RESULTS: One hundred sixty-three patients with nonfunctioning islet cell carcinoma of the pancreas were identified. The overall median survival duration was 3.2 years. The median survival was 7.1 years in patients with localized disease who underwent a potentially curative resection and 5.2 years in those with locally advanced, unresectable, nonmetastatic disease (P = .04). Patients with metastatic disease that could not be resected had a median survival of 2.1 years.
CONCLUSIONS: Patients with completely resected localized disease had a long median survival. Patients with nonmetastatic but unresectable locally advanced disease also had a surprisingly long median survival; major treatment-related morbidity may be hard to justify in this subgroup. The short median survival in patients with metastatic disease suggests that the frequent practice of observation in this patient subgroup needs to be reexamined and that continued investigation of regional and systemic therapies with novel agents is warranted.
Author List
Solorzano CC, Lee JE, Pisters PW, Vauthey JN, Ayers GD, Jean ME, Gagel RF, Ajani JA, Wolff RA, Evans DBAuthor
Douglas B. Evans MD Chair, Professor in the Surgery department at Medical College of WisconsinMESH terms used to index this publication - Major topics in bold
AdultAged
Aged, 80 and over
Carcinoma, Islet Cell
Female
Humans
Male
Middle Aged
Multivariate Analysis
Pancreatic Neoplasms
Retrospective Studies