Case Report
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. May 26, 2022; 10(15): 4886-4894
Published online May 26, 2022. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v10.i15.4886
Nonfunctional pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours misdiagnosed as autoimmune pancreatitis: A case report and review of literature
Zi-Qi Lin, Xin Li, Yan Yang, Yi Wang, Xiao-Ying Zhang, Xiao-Xin Zhang, Jia Guo
Zi-Qi Lin, Xin Li, Xiao-Ying Zhang, Xiao-Xin Zhang, Jia Guo, Department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Pancreatitis Centre and West China-Liverpool Biomedical Research Centre, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Yan Yang, Laboratory Medicine, West China School of Medicine, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Yi Wang, Department of Radiology, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China
Author contributions: Lin ZQ, Li X, Yang Y, Wang Y performed the experiments and image acquisition; Lin ZQ, Zhang XY, Zhang XX and Guo J designed the study and wrote the manuscript; Guo J edited the manuscript.
Supported by National Natural Scientific Foundation of China, No. 8150341 to Lin ZQ, and No. 81873107 to Guo J.
Informed consent statement: This study was reviewed and approved by the Ethics Committee on Biomedical Research, West China Hospital of Sichuan University [No. 2021(407)]. The Patient was not required to provide informed consent because the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors have no conflicts of interests to declare.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read the CARE Checklist (2016) and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the CARE Checklist (2016).
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: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Jia Guo, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Integrated Traditional Chinese and Western Medicine, Sichuan Provincial Pancreatitis Centre and West China-Liverpool Biomedical Research Centre, West China Hospital, Sichuan University, No. 37 Guoxue Alley, Wuhou District, Chengdu 610041, Sichuan Province, China. guojia4120@wchscu.cn
Received: September 19, 2021
Peer-review started: September 19, 2021
First decision: October 18, 2021
Revised: October 29, 2021
Accepted: April 3, 2022
Article in press: April 3, 2022
Published online: May 26, 2022
Processing time: 247 Days and 1.9 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: We report a case of a 42-year-old female patient who suffered from nonfunctional pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours but was misdiagnosed for 4 years. After the 3-year follow-up, she was misdiagnosed with autoimmune pancreatitis through radiography and underwent 1 year of corticosteroid therapy. However, her symptoms worsened. Biopsy via endoscopic ultrasonography-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy made a correct diagnosis of nonfunctional pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours, and pancreatectomy resolved the symptoms. Therefore, we propose that endoscopic ultrasonography-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy should be performed if imaging characteristics are equivocal or the diagnosis is in question.