Surgical Resection and Multidisciplinary Care for Primary and Metastatic Pancreatic Islet Cell Carcinomas

The role of multidisciplinary management of islet cell cancers (ICC) has not been fully investigated in a population-based setting. The Los Angeles County Cancer Surveillance Program was assessed for patients with ICC between the years 1982 to 2006. Patients were stratified by treatment received and clinicopathologic characteristics and survival were compared. We identified 236 patients with ICC; 86 patients underwent curative-intent surgery with median survival for local, regional, and distant disease of 17.3, 12.2, and 4.0 years, respectively. In comparison, 102 patients underwent medical management alone; survival was significantly shorter when compared to the surgical cohort for local, regional, and distant disease (p < 0.05). To determine whether adjuvant chemotherapy was associated with improved survival, we compared patients who underwent surgery alone compared to patients who underwent surgery followed by adjuvant chemotherapy. Although patients with metastatic disease had 3-year longer survival with adjuvant chemotherapy, these improvements in survival were not statistically significant. Surgical resection was associated with improved survival compared to medical management for any extent of disease in patients with ICC. Furthermore, adjuvant chemotherapy was not associated with survival but does warrant further examination in patients with metastatic disease.