clinical and pathological features of non-functional neuroendocrine tumors of pancreas: a report from iran

background pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pnets) are rare tumors with variable malignant potential, prognosis, and survival. we aimed to assess the characteristics of patients with non- functional pnet  in our hospital . methods from nov 2010 to nov 2013 , all patients who came to endosonography unit of shariati  hospital , tehran , iran , and   had pancreatic lesions were assessed . tumor samples were obtained through fine needle aspiration. various characteristics of the non- functional pnet were recorded and patients were followed up to three years. results twenty eight non func-pnet cases, aged 37-72 years were identified, 15 (53.6%) of whom were men. fifteen (53.6%) tumors were located in the head and 5(17.8%) in the body of the pancreas. the mean tumor size was 3.9 cm and 10.7% , 28.6%,  32.1%,  and  28.6% of the patients were at stages i, ii, iii and iv, respectively. of the patients, 12 (43%) underwent surgery, 3 (10.7%) received chemotherapy, and 13 (46.4%) received no treatment. during the mean follow-up of 16 months, the disease had progressed in 3 (10.7%) patients and 10 (35.7%) had died. in univariate analysis, tumor size>3cm and ki-67>20% were correlated with survival rate but not in multivariate analysis. conclusion iranian patients with non- functional pnet present similar characteristics to world patients. there is a need to establish efficacy of tumor samples which are obtaining through fine needle aspiration for  assessing  tumor grading.