Gender impact on pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasm (PanNEN) prognosis according to survival nomograms

Personalizing care and outcome evaluation are important aims in the field of NEN and nomograms may represent useful tools for clinicians. Of note, gender difference is being progressively more considered in NEN care, as it may also impact on survival. This systematic review aims to describe and analyze the available nomograms on pancreatic NENs (PanNENs) to identify if gender differences are evaluated and if they could impact on patients’ management and prognosis.

We performed an electronic-based search using PubMed updated until June 2024, summarizing the available evidence of gender impact on PanNEN survival outcomes as emerges from published nomograms.

34 articles were identified regarding prognostic nomograms in PanNEN fields. The most included variables were age, tumor grade, tumor stage, while only 5 papers (14.7%) included sex as one of the key model variables with a significant impact on patients’ prognosis. These 5 studies analyzed a total of 18,920 PanNENs. 3 studies found a significant impact of sex on overall survival (OS), whereas the remaining 2 studies showed no significant impact of sex on OS.

Gender difference is being progressively more considered in PanNEN diagnosis, care and survival. Nomograms represent a potentially useful tool in patients’ management and in outcomes prediction in the field of PanNENs. A key role of sex in the prognosis of PanNENs has been found in few models, while definitive conclusions couldn’t be drawn. Future studies are needed to finally establish gender impact on PanNEN prognosis.