Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Neoplasms: A Role of Laparoscopy in Surgical Treatment: Review

Pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (PNENs) are extremely rare neoplasms of the pancreas. They originate from pancreatic islet cells, and from the very beginning, cancer cells may or may not show hormone hypersecretion. Currently, surgical treatment is the only therapeutic method that significantly prolongs life expectancy, and in such cases it is a method of choice. In the paper, a review of literature based on the Medline database and including mainly the period of 2013 to 2017 was performed. In each case an operating surgeon is responsible for selection of a method used for surgical treatment. There is no unanimous consensus with regard to selection of a surgical method. With regard to surgeries performed in PNEN cases a laparoscopic approach can be used in almost all procedures to treat PNENs. The analysis of oncological outcomes of resection surgeries is still incomplete, but a video approach has a strong position in PNEN surgery, and according to current knowledge its therapeutic effects are equivalent to those of traditional surgery, and it offers general benefits associated with a minimally invasive approach.