The continuing problem of carcinoma of the pancreas

✍ Scribed by George A. Parker; R. W. Postlethwait

• Publisher: John Wiley and Sons
• Year: 1985
• Tongue: English
• Weight: 281 KB
• Volume: 28
• Category: Article
• ISSN: 0022-4790
• DOI: 10.1002/jso.2930280110

✦ Synopsis

The courses of 208 patients with adenocarcinoma of the pancreas were reviewed. The lesion was located in the head of the pancreas in 142 patients, (68%) and of these, in 22 patients the diagnosis was confirmed histologically at postmortem examination; 2 1 patients underwent laparotomy and biopsy with a 33% operative mortality and 3.4-month average survival; 89 patients underwent biliary and/or gastric bypass with a 24% mortality and 4.8-month average survival; 10 patients underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy with a 20% mortality and 14.6-month average survival. The lesion was located in the body or tail of the pancreas in 77 patients (32%); and, of these, 15 patients had histologic confirmation of clinical diagnoses at postmortem examination; 19 patients underwent biopsy of extra-abdominal metasases and survived an average of 1.4 months; 27 patients underwent laparotomy and biopsy with a 26% operative mortality and 3.5-month average survival; 4 patients underwent gastric and/or biliary bypass with a 50% mortality and 4.5-month average survival; one patient underwent noncurative distal pancreatectomy and survived 1 month postoperatively. No patient was cured of his disease. Of the 55 operative survivors of biliary bypass alone for carcinoma of the head of the pancreas, 5 (9 %) required subsequent gastroenterostomy for duodenal obstruction.