Curative Surgery and Ki-67 Value Rather Than Tumor Differentiation Predict the Survival of Patients With High-grade Neuroendocrine Neoplasms

Objective: To elucidate the role of surgery in patients with high-grade neuroendocrine neoplasms (hg-NENs) and Ki-67 more than 20%.

Background: Although surgery is the first treatment choice in patients with low-grade NENs, whether it increases the survival of patients with hg-NENs is debatable.

Methods: Between 2005 and 2018, 63 patients pathologically diagnosed with hg-NENs treated at our institution were retrospectively analyzed. The risk factors for overall survival (OS) and recurrence-free survival were analyzed, and OS was compared between each treatment group.

Results: The median observation time was 21.2 months, and the median Ki-67 value was 52%. Patients with hg-NENs were classified into low Ki-67 (Ki-67 <52%) and high Ki-67 (Ki-67 ≥52%) groups. Multivariate analysis for OS identified surgery (P = 0.013) and low Ki-67 value (P = 0.007) as independent risk factors, whereas morphological differentiation defined by the WHO 2017 criteria showed no association with OS. Patients with low Ki-67 value subjected to R0/1, R2, and chemotherapy had a median survival time of 83.8, 16.6, and 28.1 months, respectively. The median survival time for R0/1 group was significantly longer than that for chemotherapy group ( P = 0.001). However, no difference in survival was reported between patients from R0/1 and chemotherapy groups with high Ki-67. Ki-67 value could determine recurrence-free survival ( P = 0.006) in patients who underwent R0/1 surgery for pancreatic hg-NENs.

Conclusions: R0/1 surgery predicted prognoses in the low Ki-67 group. The indication of surgery for patients with hg-NENs did not depend on tumor differentiation.