Retrospective Cohort Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2024. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Oncol. May 15, 2024; 16(5): 1756-1762
Published online May 15, 2024. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v16.i5.1756
Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors: Are tumors smaller than 2 cm truly indolent?
Sergio Hoyos, Pablo Posada-Moreno, Natalia Guzman-Arango, Romario Chanci-Drago, Jaime Chavez, Alvaro Andrés-Duarte, Santiago Salazar-Ochoa
Sergio Hoyos, Jaime Chavez, Alvaro Andrés-Duarte, Hepatobilary and Liver Transplant Unit, Hospital Pablo Tobon Uribe and Gastrohepathology Group Universidad de Antioquia, Medellin 050034, Antioquia, Colombia
Pablo Posada-Moreno, Natalia Guzman-Arango, Romario Chanci-Drago, Santiago Salazar-Ochoa, Department of General Surgery, Universidad Pontificia Bolivariana, Medellín 050034, Antioquia, Colombia
Author contributions: Hoyos S and Posada-Moreno P were responsible for the study's design and biostatistical analysis; Guzman-Arango N, Chanci-Drago R, and Salazar-Ochoa S acquired the data; Posada-Moreno P wrote the paper; Hoyos S, Andrés-Duarte A, and Chavez J provided critical review and intellectual input for the manuscript; All authors contributed to the article and approved the final submitted version.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Hospital Pablo Tobón Uribe Institutional Review Board (Approval No. PG-DMD-046-F1).
Informed consent statement: All study participants or their legal guardian provided informed written consent about personal and medical data collection prior to study enrolment.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at sergiohoyosd@yahoo.es.
STROBE statement: The authors have read the STROBE Statement-checklist of items, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the STROBE Statement-checklist of items.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Sergio Hoyos, MD, MSc, Adjunct Professor, Chief Doctor, Chief Physician, Hepatobilary and Liver Transplant Unit, Hospital Pablo Tobon Uribe and Gastrohepathology Group Universidad de Antioquia, Calle 70 No. 52-21, Medellin 050034, Antioquia, Colombia. sergiohoyosd@yahoo.es
Received: December 20, 2023
Peer-review started: December 20, 2023
First decision: January 10, 2024
Revised: February 7, 2024
Accepted: March 25, 2024
Article in press: March 25, 2024
Published online: May 15, 2024
Processing time: 140 Days and 17.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs) are relatively uncommon but represent the second most frequent pancreatic neoplasm. This study, conducted in Colombia, challenges conventional size-based survival expectations for PNETs and advocates a surgical approach, even for tumors smaller than 2 cm. The findings underscore the importance of considering histological traits like lymphovascular and neural invasion, high mitotic index, and a Ki67 proliferation index exceeding 3%. These characteristics, traditionally associated with larger tumors and higher mortality rates, were also identified in a significant fraction of smaller tumors. More comprehensive studies are necessary to redefine clinical approaches and guidelines for managing PNETs.