Update on surgical treatment of pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms

Pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms(PNENs) are rare and account for only 2%-4% of all pancreatic neoplasms. All PNENs are potential(neurendocrine tumors PNETs) or overt(neuroendocrine carcinomas PNECs) malignant,but a subset of PNETs is low-risk. Even in case of low-risk PNETs surgical resection is frequently required to treat hormone-related symptoms and to obtain an appropriate pathological diagnosis. Low-risk PNETs in the body and the tail are ideal for minimallyinvasive approaches which should be tailored to the individual patient. Generally,surgeons must aim for parenchyma sparing in these cases. In high-risk and malignant PNENs,indications for tumor resection are much wider than for pancreatic adenocarcinoma,in many cases due to the relatively benign tumor biology. Thus,patients with locally advanced and metastatic PNETs may benefit from extensive resection. In experienced hands,even multi-organ resections are accomplished with acceptable perioperative morbidity and mortality rates and are associated with excellent long term survival. However,poorly differentiated neoplasms with high proliferation rates are associated with a dismal prognosis and may frequently only be treated with chemotherapy. The evidence on surgical treatment of PNENs stems from reviews of mostly singlecenter series and some analyses of nation-wide tumor registries. No randomized trial has been performed to compare surgical and non-surgical therapies in potentially resectable PNEN. Though such a trial would principally be desirable,ethical considerations and the heterogeneity of PNENs preclude realization of such a study. In the current review,we summarize recent advances in the surgical treatment of PNENs.

Pain sensation in pancreatic diseases is not uniform: The different facets of pancreatic pain

AIM: To systematically characterize specific pain patterns in the most frequent pancreatic diseases.METHODS: Pain in patients with chronic pancreatitis(n = 314), pancreatic cancer(n = 469), and other pancreatic tumors(n = 249) including mucinous(n = 20) and serous cystadenoma(n = 31), invasive(n = 37) and non-invasive intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasia(IPMN; n = 48), low stage(n = 18) and high stage neuroendocrine neoplasia(n = 44), and ampullary cancer(n = 51) was registered and correlated with clinicopathological data. Survival times were estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method. Patients alive at the follow-up time were censored. Survival curves were compared statistically using the log-rank test.RESULTS: Forty-nine point one percent of pancreatic cancer patients revealed no pain, whereas in chronic pancreatitis only 18.3% were pain free. In contrary, moderate/severe pain was registered in 15.1% in pancreatic cancer patients that was increased in chronic pancreatitis with up to 34.2%. Serous cystadenoma was asymptomatic in most cases(58.1%), whereas 78.9% of all mucinous cystadenoma patients suffered pain. In neuroendocrine neoplasia pain was not a key clinical symptom since 64% of low stage neuroendocrine neoplasia and 59% of high stage neuroendocrine neoplasia patients were pain free. Cancer localization in the pancreatic body and patients with malignant pancreatic neoplasms were associated with more severe pain. Tumor grading and stage did not show any impact on pain. Only in pancreatic cancer, pain was directly associated with impaired survival.CONCLUSION: Pancreatic pain depicts different patterns of abdominal pain sensation according to the respective pancreatic disorder and does not allow a unification of the term pancreatic pain.