Epidemiology of Neuroendocrine Tumors in France: The PRONET Study.

Introduction: Because of recent progress in neuroendocrine tumor treatment (NET), more data are required about this pathology in France. Aim(s): We designed a 1-year prospective epidemiological study to assess the characteristics of newly diagnosed NETs including pathological diagnosis. Materials and methods: From August 2010 to July 2011, all pathology laboratories in France were invited to register all incident cases of gastroenteropancreatic (GEP) and thoracic NET, excluding small cell carcinoma. Results: Among 500 centers, 80 agreed to participate. One thousand four-hundred and seventeen cases were included, 77 were excluded (duplicates or exclusion criteria). A total of 1,340 cases were included. Sex ratio was 0.98, mean age at diagnosis was 61.4 years (IC: 18.2-98.1). Most of the tumors were GEP (58.1%); 18.1% were thoracic, 9.7% were from other locations; the location of the primary was not given or unknown in 14.2% of cases. 30.9% of cases were metastatic at diagnosis. Among GEP NETs, 56.6% were classified G1, 29.4% G2 and 14.1% G3. Eighty-seven percent of GEP NET reports indicated at least the Ki-67; 66.5% reported both the mitotic and Ki-67 indexes. Seventy percent of centers used the 7th edition of AJCC/UICC TNM classification. Conclusion: The PRONET study indicates that the frequency of NETs in France is comparable to that reported in other countries. It underscores that the current criteria for NET classification are applied in most participating centers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]