Genetic and epigenetic prognosticators of neuroendocrine tumours of the GI tract, liver, biliary tract and pancreas: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Abstract

Multiple recurrent genetic and epigenetic aberrations have been associated with worse prognosis in multiple studies of neuroendocrine tumours (NETs), but these have been mainly small cohorts and univariate analysis. This review and meta‐analysis will focus upon the literature available on NETs of the gastrointestinal (GI) tract, liver, biliary tract and pancreas. PubMed and Embase were searched for publications that investigated the prognostic value of (epi)genetic changes of neuroendocrine tumours. A meta‐analysis was performed assessing the association of the (epi)genetic alterations with overall survival (OS), disease‐free survival (DFS) or locoregional control (LRC). In the pancreas DAXX/ATRX [hazard ratio (HR) = 3.29; 95% confidence interval (CI) = 2.28–4.74] and alternative lengthening telomeres (ALT) activation (HR = 8.20; 95% CI = 1.40–48.07) showed a pooled worse survival. In the small bowel NETs gains on chromosome 14 were associated with worse survival (HR  2.85; 95% CI = 1.40–5.81). NETs from different anatomical locations must be regarded as different biological entities with diverging molecular prognosticators, and epigenetic changes being important to the pathogenesis of these tumours. This review underpins the prognostic drivers of pancreatic NET which lie in mutations of DAXX/ATRX and ALT pathways. However, there is reaffirmation that prognostic molecular biomarkers of small bowel NETs should be sought in copy number variations (CNVs) rather than in single nucleotide variations (SNVs). This review also reveals how little is known about the prognostic significance of epigenetics in NETs.