Onkológia 6/2007

BIOPTIC DIAGNOSIS OF THE PANCREATIC ENDOCRINE TUMOURS

Pancreatic endocrine tumours (PET) comprise around 5 % of all primary pancreatic cancer. They possess different molecular mechanisms in the process of oncogenesis and have better prognosis when compared to the more common tumours of ductal origin. PET arise from the full-differentiated endocrine cells or from the pluripotent cell with ability of differentiation to the various types of endocrine cells. Therefore a great part of PET can be presented in the clinical picture as a functioning tumour with secretion of eutopic or ectopic substantives and consequently can be detected earlier. PET possess characteristic histomorphological patterns and typical imunohistochemical features that confirm their neuroendocrine nature. Standardized bioptic examination of PET is in fact very important part of the diagnostic algorithm and contains macroscopic, microscopic and immunohistochemical analysis of the tumour. Final diagnosis of the PET is a result of clinical and pathological correlations and respects criteria of the WHO classification (2000) and terminology of PET.

Keywords: pancreas, endocrine, tumour, carcinoma