Christopher R. Shubert

Background: Well-differentiated pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs) develop in ~80% of patients with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) and remain the leading cause of MEN1-related mortality. Whether MEN1-associated PanNETs display distinct clinicopathologic or prognostic characteristics compared with non-MEN1 PanNETs remains incompletely defined. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed clinical, pathological, and outcome data from 817 patients who underwent surgical resection for well-differentiated PanNETs, including 39 MEN1-associated and 778 non-MEN1 PanNETs, with a total of 7752 person-years of follow-up. Tumor characteristics, stage, and survival outcomes were compared between two groups. Results: MEN1-associated PanNETs represented 4.8% of the cohort and included both functional and non-functional tumors. Patients with MEN1 more frequently had functional tumors, with insulinomas and gastrinomas predominating. Patients with MEN1 were significantly younger at surgery. Tumor size and grade distribution were similar between the two groups, although tumors >2 cm were more prevalent in patients with MEN1. MEN1-associated tumors demonstrated significantly lower rates of lymphovascular and perineural invasion, but similar rates of lymph node metastasis and stage III disease when only lymph node metastases attributable to a pancreatic primary were included. Long-term overall survival, disease-specific survival, and cumulative incidence of relapses did not differ significantly between MEN1 and non-MEN1 patients. Conclusions: In this retrospective cohort of surgically resected, well-differentiated PanNETs, MEN1-associated tumors exhibited similar histologic grade and tumor size distributions to non-MEN1 PanNETs. MEN1 status was associated with a higher prevalence of functional tumors and lymph node metastases, but lower rates of vascular and perineural invasion. Despite these features, no statistically significant differences in long-term overall survival, disease-specific survival, or cumulative incidence of relapse were observed between surgically resected patients with and without MEN1, though the study was underpowered to detect modest differences.

Background: Well-differentiated pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (PanNETs) develop in ~80% of patients with multiple endocrine neoplasia type 1 (MEN1) and remain the leading cause of MEN1-related mortality. Whether MEN1-associated PanNETs display distinct clinicopathologic or prognostic characteristics compared with sporadic PanNETs remains incompletely defined. Methods: We retrospectively reviewed clinical, pathological, and outcome data from 817 patients who underwent surgical resection for well-differentiated PanNETs, including 39 MEN1-associated and 778 non-MEN1 tumors, with a total of 7,752 person-years of follow-up. Tumor characteristics, stage, and survival outcomes were compared between two groups. Results: MEN1-associated PanNETs represented 4.8% of the cohort and included both functional and non-functional tumors. Patients with MEN1 more frequently had functional tumors, with insulinomas and gastrinomas pre-dominating. Patients with MEN1 were significantly younger at surgery. Tumor size and grade distribution were similar between two groups, although tumors >2 cm were more prevalent in patients with MEN1. MEN1-associated tumors demonstrated significantly lower rates of lymphovascular and perineural invasion, but similar rates of lymph node metastasis and stage III disease when only lymph node metastases attributa-ble to a pancreatic primary were included. Long-term overall survival, disease-specific survival, and cumula-tive incidence of relapses did not differ significantly between MEN1 and non-MEN1 patients. Conclusions: Surgically resected MEN1-associated PanNETs show comparable histologic grade and tumor size to sporadic PanNETs. MEN1 is associated with more functional tumors and lymph node metastases, but less vascu-lar/perineural invasion. Despite these features, long-term overall survival, disease-specific survival and cu-mulative incidence of relapse are comparable between surgically resected patients with and without MEN1.

Cells analyzed per patient and subset nearest neighbor analysis by treatment status and at increased radii

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) carries an extremely poor prognosis, in part resulting from cellular heterogeneity that supports overall tumorigenicity. Cancer-associated fibroblasts (CAF) are key determinants of PDAC biology and response to systemic therapy, and multiple CAF subtypes have been defined. However, defining the effects of patient-specific CAF heterogeneity and plasticity on tumor cell behavior is required to better characterize the role of CAFs in PDAC. In this study, we used multiomic analyses to characterize the tumor microenvironment (TME) in tumors from patients undergoing curative-intent surgery for PDAC. In these same patients, matched tumor organoid and CAF lines were established to functionally validate the impact of CAFs on the tumor cells. CAFs promoted epithelial–mesenchymal transition and a switch in tumor cell classification from classical to basal subtype. Furthermore, CAF-specific interleukin 8 functioned as a modulator of tumor cell subtype. Finally, neighborhood relationships between tumor cells and T cell subsets were defined, demonstrating a distinct spatial coordination among CAF and tumor cell subtypes. Overall, this study provides data supporting CAF signaling as a regulator of the cellular and behavioral heterogeneity in the PDAC TME. These findings can be used to explore rational approaches to improve therapies for this difficult-to-treat disease.Significance:Multidimensional analyses highlight the diverse role of cancer-associated fibroblasts in influencing cells in the tumor microenvironment and provide a platform for evaluating emerging therapeutic approaches and studying mechanisms dictating tumor behavior.

Quantification of N-cadherin and Krt17 surface expression on organoids with and without coculture

Wound healing assay with CAF conditioned media

Coculture setup and deconstruction.

RNAscope of classical and basal tumor cell markers