Abstract: Objective To investigate the clinicopathological features and the relationship with prognosis in the elderly patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNENs). Methods The clinicopathological and follow-up data of 81 elderly patients with pNENs who were hospitalized in the First Affiliated Hospital of Nanjing Medical University from January 2018 to June 2022 were collected. Univariate analysis was performed using χ²test, and binary Logistic regression analysis was used to evaluate the independent risk factors for prognosis. Results Among the 81 elderly patients aged 60 to 89 years old (41 males and 40 females), 68 cases presented with non-functional pNENs, and 13 cases presented with functional pNENs which were diagnosed as insulinoma. The pathological classification showed 21 cases (25.93%) of G1 grade, 43 cases (53.09%) of G2 grade, 6 cases (7.41%) of G3 grade, 8 cases (9.88%) of neuroendocrine tumor (NEC) and 3 cases (3.70%) of mixed neuroendocrine-non-neuroendocrine neoplasms (MiNEN). The follow-up time ranged from 1 to 58 months. There were 18 cases of death. Single factor analysis showed that tumor function (P=0.028), tumor grade (χ²=44.387, P < 0.01), TNM stage (χ²=25.980, P < 0.01), surgery (P=0.002) were associated with the overall prognosis of the patients with pNENs. Logistic regression analysis indicated that tumor TNM stage (P=0.035) was the independent risk factor for the prognosis of pNENs. Conclusions Tumor TNM stage is a key indicator affecting the prognosis of the patients with pNENs.

Key words: pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors, aged, clinical features, diagnosis, prognosis