Clinical Evaluation of 7 Patients with Nonfunctioning Islet Cell Tumors of the Pancreas

A clinicopahtological evaluation of seven patients with nonfunctioning islet cell tumors of the pancreas was undertaken. All patients were women. Four of the tumors were diagnosed pathologically as malignant and the others were benign. All four tumors diagnosed as malignant were over 10 cm in diameter. None of the patients had any specific clinical symptoms or laboratory findings, but angiography was very useful for diagnosis. The tumors were most frequently located in the body and tail of the pancreas. All patients were surgically treated and macroscopically all tumors were curatively resected. The operative procedures were pancreaticoduodenectomy in two patients, distal pancreatectomy in three patients and extirpation of the tumor in two patients. As one of the patients has survived for more than 13 years after her tumor was diagnosed as malignant, prognosis of this disease seems to be relatively good. But the other patient whose tumor was extirpated died of recurrent hepatic metastasis and peritonitis carcinomatosa. After an adequate operative procedure, detailed examinations of the resected specimens and careful follow up are significant.