ABSTRACT
The pathogenesis of neuroendocrine carcinoma (NEC) and mixed neuroendocrine-non-neuroendocrine neoplasms (MiNEN) in the gastrointestinal tract remains poorly understood. This study seeks to characterize the clinicopathologic and molecular features of NEC/MiNEN in patients with inflammatory bowel disease (IBD). Eighteen surgically resected IBD-associated intestinal carcinomas with a minimum of 30% neuroendocrine component were collected from 6 academic centers and compared to a control group of 12 IBD-associated carcinomas lacking neuroendocrine differentiation. Both groups exhibited a male predominance and similar age distribution. The NEC/MiNEN group was more likely to have a higher percentage of Crohn's disease (9/18 vs. 1/12, P=0.024), occur in the rectum (9/18 vs. 3/12) and small intestine (4/18 vs. 0/12) (P<0.01), be diagnosed on resection without a preceding biopsy (6/18 vs. 0/12, P=0.057), and have unidentifiable precursor lesions (10/18 vs. 1/12, P=0.018) than the control group. Synchronous carcinoma, advanced tumor stage (pT3 and pT4), and lymph node metastasis occurred at similar rates; however, the NEC/MiNEN group had a higher incidence of angiovascular invasion (14/18 vs. 4/12, P=0.024), distant metastasis (8/18 vs. 1/12, P=0.049), mortality (8/18 vs. 2/12, P=0.058), and worse survival (Kaplan-Meier, P=0.023) than the control group. All tested cases were mismatch repair proficient. A Ki-67 proliferation index ranged from 25% to 100%. Next-generation sequencing in 11 NEC/MiNEN cases revealed low tumor mutational burdens but complex genetic abnormalities commonly involving TP53 (9/11, 82%), FBXW7 (4/11, 36%), and APC (3/11, 27%), with the other genetic alterations randomly occurring in one or two cases. The neuroendocrine component, which shared similar molecular alterations as the non-neuroendocrine component, was subcategorized into intermediate (G3a)- and high-grade (G3b); the higher-grade correlated with more genetic alterations. In conclusion, IBD-associated NEC/MiNEN shows diverse histologic features, variable precursor lesions, intricate genetic abnormalities, and aggressive biologic behavior. The classification and grading of GI-NEC/MiNEN may be refined for better clinical management.
