Calcitonin-Producing Neuroendocrine Neoplasms of the Pancreas: Clinicopathological Study of 25 Cases and Review of the Literature.

Details

Serval ID
serval:BIB_227C0BBD0CC0
Type
Article: article from journal or magazin.
Publication sub-type
Review (review): journal as complete as possible of one specific subject, written based on exhaustive analyses from published work.
Collection
Publications
Institution
Title
Calcitonin-Producing Neuroendocrine Neoplasms of the Pancreas: Clinicopathological Study of 25 Cases and Review of the Literature.
Journal
Endocrine pathology
Author(s)
Uccella S., Blank A., Maragliano R., Sessa F., Perren A., La Rosa S.
ISSN
1559-0097 (Electronic)
ISSN-L
1046-3976
Publication state
Published
Issued date
12/2017
Peer-reviewed
Oui
Volume
28
Number
4
Pages
351-361
Language
english
Notes
Publication types: Journal Article
Publication Status: ppublish
Abstract
Increased levels of circulating calcitonin are a clue in the diagnosis of medullary thyroid carcinoma. However, hypercalcitoninemia can also be related to other pathological conditions, including pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (PanNENs). Ectopic hormonal production is not unusual in both functioning and non-functioning PanNENs; however, little is known about the frequency of calcitonin expression in these neoplasms. The aims of this study were to assess the frequency of calcitonin immunoreactivity in PanNENs, independently from serum calcitonin levels, and to evaluate the clinicopathological and prognostic features of calcitonin-immunoreactive (Cal-IR) PanNENs, including a comparison with cases already reported in the literature. We screened 229 PanNENs for the immunohistochemical expression of calcitonin, including both functioning and non-functioning neoplasms, as well as both well-differentiated and poorly differentiated PanNENs. Both the clinicopathological data and the follow-up information were available and were compared with the immunohistochemical results. In addition, we reviewed the features of the calcitonin-producing PanNENs previously reported in the literature. Calcitonin was expressed in 25 of our 229 PanNENs (10.9%). Examples of well- and poorly differentiated, as well as both functioning and non-functioning PanNENs, were found to be calcitonin immunoreactive. Cal-IR PanNENs did not show any significant difference with the whole series of neoplasms included in the study, when the clinicopathological parameters were considered, except for a younger age at diagnosis and for a larger size of the tumor in non-functioning Cal-IR PanNENs. Taken together, our results show that calcitonin immunoreactivity is not an exceptional event in PanNENs. Furthermore, calcitonin expression does not identify a separate clinical entity, in contrast to other PanNENs with ectopic hormone production, such as adrenocorticotropic hormone (ACTH)-producing PanNENs, which show a distinctively more aggressive behavior.

Keywords
Calcitonin, Ectopic hormone secretion, Functioning tumor, Non-functioning tumor, Pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasm
Pubmed
Web of science
Create date
30/10/2017 12:36
Last modification date
20/08/2019 12:59
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