The results of early detection and surgical intervention of the pancreatic tumors in MEN 1 suggested an impact on morbidity, while any effect on the mortality of these individuals remains to be clarified.
This study investigated expression of the menin protein in the normal exocrine pancreas and in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the most common pancreatic tumor.
Thirty-nine sporadic NE tumors of foregut derivation (six thymic, 21 bronchial, three gastric, and nine pancreatic tumors) as well as two hindgut-derived rectal carcinoids for somatic MEN1 gene mutation were analyzed by direct sequencing analysis.
Allelic losses on 11q13, on which MEN-1 gene has been localized, have been noted in parathyroid and pancreatic tumors of patients with MEN-1, suggesting that the MEN-1 gene could act as a recessive tumor suppressor gene.