Rare neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas

Abstract

Neuroendocrine tumors of the pancreas are rare tumors. The annual incidence of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors is approximately 4-12 cases per million -population, which is much lower than that reported from autopsy series (about 1%) [1,2]. Neuroendocrine tumors comprise only a minor number of all pancreatic tumors. By incidence, neuroendocrine carcinomas account for 1.3% of all pancreatic cancers. However, in prevalence analyses they represent about 10% of all pancreatic cancers because of the better outcome than exocrine carcinomas [3]. With the development of more sensitive imaging techniques, the number of patients with pancreatic -neuroendocrine tumors has increased [4,5]. This, however, -probably does not reflect an actual increase in incidence but rather an improvement in the diagnostic methods. © 2010 Springer Science+Business Media, LLC.