title: Long-term survival after pancreatic adenocarcinoma--often a misdiagnosis?
abstract: Prognosis of adenocarcinoma of the pancreas has remained poor, but a few patients are reported to live 5 years or longer after the diagnosis. Using the data of the Finnish Cancer Registry, we could identify only 78 patients (1.3%) who had survived for longer than 5 years after the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer among 5,837 patients diagnosed in Finland in 1975-1984. However, in 33 of the 78 cases a histological diagnosis of pancreatic cancer had never been made, and the majority of the remaining 45 patients turned out not to have pancreatic adenocarcinoma after a review. The results suggest that the majority of patients with long-term survival following the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer have never had pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Taking a biopsy from a suspected pancreatic neoplasm and careful histological evaluation may prohibit misdiagnosis of this highly lethal disease.
authors.affiliation: Department of Pathology, University of Turku, Finland.
authors.forename: K A
authors.initials: KA
authors.lastname: Alanen
authors.forename: H
authors.initials: H
authors.lastname: Joensuu
mesh_terms: D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality*; D003951:Diagnostic Errors; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000401:mortality*; D015996:Survival Rate