Objective:To investigate the diagnosis and treatment of nonfunctioning islet cell tumor (NICT).
Methods:The clinical data of 29 NICT patients treated at Xiangya Hospital in the past 17 years were retrospectively analyzed.
Results:In the 29 cases, who all had no obvious clinical symptoms, the major sign was abdominal mass (25/29). B-type ultrasound and CT examination were the main approaches of preoperative detecion, and the detection rate was 100% (29/29) and 96.5% (28/29), respectively. Of these patients,  benign and malignant lesions accounted for 65.5% (19/29) and 34.5% (10/29), respectively. The surgical resection rate was 100%.
Conclusions:NICT has no typical clinical symptoms and B-type ultrasound and CT are effective detection methods. It can be diagnosed as malignant tumor, if the lesion lacks an intact capsule or shows aggressive growth. Surgery is the first option to treat NICT, and the treatment results of the NICT patients are better than those patients with exocrine tumor of pancreas.