AIM: To more clearly define the clinical and pathological characteristics and appropriate diagnosis and treatment of nonfunctioning (NFICTs) islet cell tumors, and to review our institutional experience over the last 30 years.METHODS: The records of 43 patients confirmed to have nonfunctioning islet cell tumors of pancreas were retrospectively reviewed. Survival was estimated by the Kaplan-Meier methods and potential risk factors for survival were compared with the log-rank tests.RESULTS: The mean age was 31.63 years (range, 8 to 67 years). There were 7 men and 36 women. Twentyeight patients had a confirmed diagnosis of nonfunctioning islet cell carcinoma (NFICC) and benign islet cell tumors were found in 15 patients. The most common symptoms in patients with NFICTs were abdominal pain (55.8%),nausea and/or vomiting (32.6%), fatigue (25.6%) and abdominal mass (23.3%). Preoperative ultrasonic and computed tomography localized the tumors in all patients.Forty-three NFICTs were distributed throughout the pancreas, with 21 located to the right of the superior mesenteric vessels, 10 in the body of the pancreas, 6 in the tail of the pancreas, and multiple tumors were found in one patient. Thirty-nine of 43 patients (91%) underwent surgical resection. Surgical treatment was curative in 30patients (70%) and palliative in 9(21%). The resectability and curative resection rate in patients with NFICC of pancreas were 89% and 61%, respectively. The overall cumulative 5- and 10-year survival rates for patients with NFICC were 58.05% and 29.03%, respectively. Radical operation and diameter of cancer small than :10 cm were positive prognostic factors in females younger than 30years old. Multivariate Cox regression analysis indicated that radical operation was the only independent prognostic factor, P=0.007.CONCLUSION: Nonfunctioning islet cell tumors of pancreas are found mainly in young women. The long-term results for patients undergone surgery, especially curative resection are good.