From pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia to cancer: a dramatic progression with K-ras status analysis.
Pancreatic ductal carcinomas are thought to arise from precursor ductal lesions called pancreatic intra-epithelial neoplasias or PanINs. We report the case of a woman suffering from idiopathic chronic pancreatitis associated with PanINs lesions who developed six years later an invasive ductal carcinoma. Immunohistochemistry for p53, HER-2/neu and genetic analysis of K-ras oncogene were performed at different stages of disease and revealed that the PanINs and the carcinoma did not express p53 and HER-2/neu gene products whereas a K-ras mutation was present at the carcinoma stage. The relationship between cancer and chronic pancreatitis and the main difficulties concerning the early diagnostic of pancreatic cancer are discussed.
Fernandez
Carla
C
Department of Pathology, Hôpital Sainte-Marguerite, Marseille, France.
Chetaille
Bruno
B
Tasei
Anne-Marie
AM
Sastre
Bernard
B
Sahel
José
J
Payan-Defais
Marie-José
MJ
D002278:Carcinoma in Situ / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology*; D002471:Cell Transformation, Neoplastic / Q000235:genetics*; D018450:Disease Progression; D005260:Female; D011905:Genes, ras / Q000235:genetics*; D006801:Humans; D007150:Immunohistochemistry; D008875:Middle Aged; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000235:genetics* / Q000503:physiopathology*