(ChemotherapyAdvisor) – Classifications for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors are prognostic for recurrence-free survival and can be adopted in clinical practice, according to a study published in the March 11 issue of Annals of Surgery. In this study, entitled “Relapse-Free Survival in Patients with Nonmetastatic, Surgically Resected Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Tumors: An Analysis of the AJCC and ENETS Staging Classifications”, the authors aimed to evaluate whether the new TNM staging systems proposed by the American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) and European Neuroendocrine Tumor Society (ENETS) are prognostic for relapse-free survival (RFS) after surgical resection.
The study authors collected historical data on patients with surgically resected localized or locally advanced pancreatic NETs that had been treated at the H. Lee Moffitt Cancer Center between 1999 and 2010. Each patient’s pancreatic NET was then assigned a stage (1–3) based on the AJCC and ENETS classifications. Two variables — RFS and overall survival — were measured using Kaplan-Meier methodology; a log-rank test was then performed to compare the two tumor staging systems.
“When using the AJCC classification, five-year RFS rates for stages 1 through 3 were 78%, 53%, and 33%, respectively (P<0.01). Using the ENETS classification, five-year RFS rates for stages 1 to 3 were 100%, 70%, and 53% (P<0.18),” the authors wrote. “When excluding patients who were referred after their metastatic recurrence, the five-year RFS rates for stages 1 to 3 were 90%, 73%, and 66% according to the AJCC classification, and 100%, 84%, and 75% according to the ENETS classification.”
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The authors concluded: “The AJCC and ENETS TNM classifications for pancreatic NETs are prognostic for recurrence-free survival and can be adopted in clinical practice.”
