Role of tomoelastography for the differentiation between solid pseudopapillary neoplasms and pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms

This prospective study enrolled patients with pathologically confirmed solid pseudopapillary tumors (SPNs) and pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNENs) who underwent preoperative tomoelastography examinations at our hospital. Sixty-four patients were included (18 patients with SPNs; 46 patients with pNENs). SPNs showed significantly lower stiffness (P<0.001) and fluidity (P=0.001) than pNENs. Both stiffness and fluidity allowed distinguishing SPNs from pNENs. AUCs were 0.899 for stiffness, 0.760 for fluidity. Tomoelastography is a novel multi-frequency MRE technique that can facilitate the differentiation between SPNs and pNENs.