title: Single institutional series of neuroendocrine tumors managed in the Australian Capital Territory.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Retrospective review of neuroendocrine tumors (NETs) treated within the Australian Capital Territory to describe the local epidemiology and assess prognostic clinicopathological factors.
  
  
  METHODS
  Patients with histologically proven non-pulmonary low to intermediate grade NETs were identified from our hospital clinical database. Data were analyzed according to epidemiological, clinical and histopathological characteristics.
  
  
  RESULTS
  Of the 107 included patients, the most common primary tumor site was jejunum/ileum (32%), followed by rectum (22%) and pancreas (11.2%). In total, 32% had distant metastases at presentation, most commonly in the liver. Most patients were symptomatic at diagnosis, while 22.4% of cases were found incidentally. Second malignancies, in particular of gastrointestinal origin, were diagnosed in 33.6%. Surgical debulking was the most common treatment (59.8%) while 18% had multimodality therapy. With a median follow-up of 25 months from diagnosis, about 78% of patients are still alive. Median time to first relapse was 15 months and the 5-year survival rate was 80% for NETs of jejunum/ileum. Univariate survival analysis revealed tumor location, high Ki67 index, raised plasma chromogranin A, and urine 5-hydroxyindoleacetic acid upon diagnosis to be associated with shorter 5-year survival.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  The epidemiologic characteristics and long-term outcome in our series are comparable to other reported studies. This analysis presents some important prognostic factors which could be used for risk stratification in patients with NETs.
authors.affiliation: Medical Oncology Unit, The Canberra Hospital, Garran, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
authors.forename: Laeeq
authors.initials: L
authors.lastname: Malik
authors.affiliation: Medical Oncology Unit, The Canberra Hospital, Garran, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.|ANU Medical School, Australian National University, Acton, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
authors.forename: Yu Jo
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Chua
authors.affiliation: COMSATS Institute of Information Technology, Lahore, Pakistan.
authors.forename: Nadeem S
authors.initials: NS
authors.lastname: Butt
authors.affiliation: Medical Oncology Unit, The Canberra Hospital, Garran, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.|ANU Medical School, Australian National University, Acton, Australian Capital Territory, Australia.
authors.forename: Desmond
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Yip
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D020958:Australian Capital Territory / Q000453:epidemiology; D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor / Q000032:analysis*; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D018358:Neuroendocrine Tumors / Q000453:epidemiology* / Q000473:pathology*; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate
chemical_list: D014408:Biomarkers, Tumor
keywords: chromogranin A; epidemiology; neuroendocrine tumors; prognostic factors; survival