Abstract:

Target: Neuroendocrine tumors are a heterogeneous group of tumors that can be varied in terms of settlement, biological behavior and clinical behavior. Our study aimed at identifying the demographic characteristics and prognostic factors of the phenomena that were diagnosed with neuron-endocrine tumors followed in our center retrospectively. Instruments and Methods: Between January 1994 and September 2015, 110 patients were diagnosed with neuron-endocrine tumor in the Medical Oncology Clinic of the University of Istanbul's Chirurgical Faculty of Medicine. The demographic data and prognostic indicators of patients were obtained retrospectively from the patient's files. The average age of patients is 55±13 and 57% (n = 63) are male. As the primary tumor area, the pancreas was most frequently settled (30%). 70% of cases (n = 77) were in the immediate metastatic stage of the diagnosis and the most frequently metastatic place was detected as the liver. In 13% of the cases, the primary focus was not found. The first symptoms in patients were most commonly stomach pain (51%), while the rate of asymptomatic occurrences was 12%. Between metastatic disease and tumor indicators, only significant differences between the levels of carcinomembrional antigen (p = 0.02) and the differentiation degree (p = 0.008) were found associated with the levels of neuron-specific enolase (p = 0.008). Mortality was associated with advanced age (p <0.001), low differentiation (p <0.001) and the immediate presence of metastases (p = 0.002). In patients evaluated tumor indicators were found to be associated with mortality only with the high levels of neuron-specific enolase (p = 0.005). The result: In our study, higher death rates were observed in patients with neuroendocrine cancer, which showed less differentiation and metastatic at the moment of diagnosis. Early diagnosis and coordinated use of different methods of treatment can provide more successful results in the treatment of these tumors.

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