Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor Grade 1 patients followed up without surgery: Case series

Among the three grades of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs), the prognosis for Grade 1 (G1) with surgery is very good. Therefore, we evaluated the prognoses of pancreatic NET (PNET) G1 patients without surgery. A total of 8 patients who were diagnosed with NET G1, with an observation period of more than 6 mo until surgery or without surgery, were recruited. The patients who underwent surgery were ultimately diagnosed using specimens obtained during the surgery, whereas the patients who did not undergo surgery were diagnosed using specimens obtained by endoscopic ultrasonography-guided fine needle aspiration. Overall, we mainly evaluated the observation period and tumor growth. The observation period for the five cases with surgery ranged from 6-80 mo, and tumor growth was observed in one case. In contrast, the observation period for the three cases without surgery ranged from 17-54 mo, and tumor growth was not observed. Therefore, although the first-choice treatment for NETs is surgery, our experience includes certain NET G1 patients who were followed up without surgery.