How Racially Distinct Genetic Differences May Influence Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Care

There are known outcome disparities between Black and White patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNETs). Multiple retrospective series have found that Black patients have more advanced disease and worse survival. Recently, Black patients were shown to have higher rates of lymph node metastasis in smaller tumors than White patients, indicating possible differences in tumor biology. Numerous prognostic gene expression differences between racial groups have been reported in other cancers, but limited analysis has been conducted in pNETs. The most commonly mutated genes in pNETs have not been validated specifically in Black patients. Future multi-omic pNET analyses must be powered to investigate the biologic source of these disparities further.