Distribution, incidence, and prognosis in neuroendocrine tumors: a population based study from a cancer registry.

Neuroendocrine tumors are considered rare tumors: recently an increased incidence and an improvement in survival were described. We explore distribution, incidence and survival of neuroendocrine tumors using population based registry data. We extracted from the Tuscan Cancer Registry neuroendocrine tumors from 1985-2005, and we evaluated distribution, incidence ad survival according to sex, site of tumor, age and stage at diagnosis. 455 cases of neuroendocrine tumors were identified. The overall incidence increased over the study period from 0.7 per 100,000 per year to 1.6 among men (APC +3.6) and from 0.3 to 2.1 among women (APC +4.8). The anatomic distribution of tumors was lung 25.7%, small intestine 23.5%, appendix 10.9%, colon 10.3%, pancreas 9.4%, stomach 7.4%, and rectum 5.2%. Neuroendocrine tumors were more frequent among males and incidence rate increased with age. We observed increased incidence of neuroendocrine tumors, while survival did not change over time. Prognosis varied with age, stage and localization; females had better survival than males. The increase number of neuroendocrine tumors may be due, at least in part, to better registration and to improvement of diagnosis.