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There is more than one type of pancreatic cancer. Most people have cancer
of the exocrine cells, known as adenocarcinoma. A small minority have cancer
of the endocrine, or hormone producing cells, commonly referred to as islet
cell cancer. This can, however, confusingly be referred to by several other
names including pancreatic endocrine tumours and neuroendocrine tumours. The
pancreas produces several different hormones, each by a different type of
endocrine or islet cell. These cancers can, therefore, also be called after
the relevant individual type of cell, eg. insulinoma, glucagonoma,
somatostatinoma or VIPoma.
As these are tumours of hormone producing cells, some of these tumours
themselves produce high levels of the relevant hormone. If so, they are
called functioning pancreatic endocrine or islet cell tumours; those that do
not produce measurable levels of hormones are called non-functioning.
To complicate matters further, the term "neuroendocrine tumours" covers a
whole group of cancers of hormone producing cells in different parts of the
body. The most common type of neuroendocrine tumour is the carcinoid tumour,
which very rarely appears in the pancreas. However, the treatments for
pancreatic endocrine tumours are very similar to those for carcinoid
tumours, and they are dealt with by the same specialists. This is why the US
Carcinoid Cancer Foundation site is so useful.
The success rate of treatment of these PNETs, short for pancreatic neuroendocrine tumours, is much better than the results of treatment of other types of pancreatic cancer. They also have different types of treatment from adenocarcinoma and you need to be seen by an expert in this form of cancer. Therefore it is important to identify whether a patient has this rarer type which accounts for less than 2% of pancreatic cancers.
Unlike the common exocrine ductal pancreatic cancer, endocrine tumours can affect individuals at any age and they can even arise in small babies. In particular they occur in young-to-middle aged patients.
There is more information on neuroendocrine tumours of the pancreas and their symptoms on our page on types of pancreatic cancer.
You can find examples of patients with neuroendocrine cancer on our patient's biographies page.
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