• Long-term survival after surgical management of neuroendocrine hepatic metastases

      Glazer, Evan S.; Tseng, Jennifer F.; Al-Refaie, Waddah B.; Solorzano, Carmen C.; Liu, Ping; Willborn, Katherine A.; Abdalla, Eddie K.; Vauthey, Jean-Nicolas; Curley, Steven A. (2010-07-29)
      BACKGROUND: Surgical cytoreduction and endocrine blockade are important options for care for neuroendocrine liver metastases. We investigated the long-term survival of patients surgically treated for hepatic neuroendocrine metastases. METHODS: Patients (n= 172) undergoing operations for neuroendocrine liver metastases from any primary were identified from a prospective liver database. Recorded data and medical record review were used to analyse the type of procedure, length of hospital stay, peri-operative morbidity, tumour recurrence, progression,and survival. RESULTS: The median age was 56.8 years (range 11.5-80.7 years). 48.3% of patients were female. Median overall survival was 9.6 years (range 89 days to 22 years). On multivariate analysis, lung/thymic primaries were associated with worse survival [hazard ratio (HR): 15.6, confidence interval (CI): 4.3-56.8, P= 0.002]. Severe post-operative complications were also associated with worse long-term survival (P < 0.001). A positive resection margin status (R1) was not associated with a worse overall survival probability (P approximately 0.8). DISCUSSION: Early and aggressive surgical management of hepatic metastases from neuroendocrine tumours is associated with significant long-term survival rates. Radiofrequency ablation is a reasonable option if a lesion is unresectable. R1 resections, unlike many other cancers, are not associated with a worse overall survival.
    • Pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors: the impact of surgical resection on survival

      Hill, Joshua S.; McPhee, James T.; McDade, Theodore P.; Zhou, Zheng; Sullivan, Mary E.; Whalen, Giles F.; Tseng, Jennifer F. (2009-01-09)
      BACKGROUND: Although surgical resection is generally recommended for patients with localized pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PNETs), the impact of resection on overall survival is unknown. The authors investigated the survival advantage of pancreatic resection using a national database. METHODS: This is a retrospective survival analysis of patients with PNETs from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results database (1988-2002). RESULTS: A total of 728 patients with PNETs were identified with a median survival of 43 months using Kaplan-Meier survival methods. Resection of tumor was associated with significantly improved survival compared with those patients who were recommended for but did not undergo resection (114 months vs 35 months; P < .0001). This survival benefit was demonstrated for patients with localized, regional, and metastatic disease. A multivariable Cox proportional hazards model was constructed to assess the overall effect of surgical resection on survival, and demonstrated an adjusted odds ratio of 0.48 (95% confidence interval, 0.35-0.66) compared with those who were recommended for surgery but did not proceed to surgery. CONCLUSIONS: The authors have demonstrated in a large national study that resection of primary tumor in patients with PNETs is associated with improved survival across all disease stages. Patients with localized, regional, and metastatic PNETs who are reasonable operative candidates should be considered for resection of their primary tumors.