The recent consensus on the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic
neuroendocrine tumors (
PNET) is described. The selective arterial
secretagogue injection test and
somatostatin receptor scintigraphy are essential for the localization of
PNET. A few characteristic clinicopathologic findings of
PNET in patients with
multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN 1) have been elucidated and contributed to improved surgical treatment for these
tumors, such as pancreas-preserving total duodenectomy for multiple duodenal
gastrinomas in patients with MEN 1 and Zollinger-Ellison syndromes, or distal
pancreatectomy for patients with MEN 1 and
hypoglycemia. Early diagnosis and early surgical resection of
PNET are recommended for complete cure of disease. In liver
metastasis of
PNET, mass reduction surgery with
hepatectomy improves the prognosis of patients, and
octreotide LAR has been shown to be useful for reducing complications and inhibiting the growth of
tumors.