title: [Diagnosis and management of metastatic pancreatic tumors].
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  To study the clinicopathological features and prognostic factors of metastatic pancreatic tumor.
  
  
  METHODS
  The clinical data of 18 metastatic pancreatic tumors were retrospectively analyzed. The primary foci of these 18 patients included: 8 lung cancer, 2 gastric cancer, and malignant histiocytoma, melanoma, rectal cancer, thyroid cancer, renal cell carcinoma, esophageal carcinoma, liver cancer and ovarian cancer each.
  
  
  RESULTS
  All these 18 patients harboring metastatic pancreatic tumor did not show any specific symptoms but were frequently found to have a solitary (14 cases) or multiple (4 cases) homogeneous and hypodense nodules on CT scan without any enhancement except one metastatic renal cell carcinoma. The diagnosis was cytologically confirmed in 14 patients by fine needle aspiration biopsy guided by CT or ultrasonography, and diagnosed by postoperative pathology in the other 4 patients. After receiving combined modality treatment, their survival time was 8 to 38 months with an average of 19 months.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Metastatic pancreatic tumors are rare and give no specific symptom or image finding. Selection of appropriate combined modality treatment according to the type of primary focus is very important for the management.
authors.affiliation: Department of Abdominal Surgical Oncology, Cancer Institute (Hospital), Chinese Academy of Medical Sciences and Peking Union Medical College, Beijing 100021, China. E-mail: xudongkui7173@126.com.
authors.forename: Dong-kui
authors.initials: DK
authors.lastname: Xu
authors.forename: Ping
authors.initials: P
authors.lastname: Zhao
authors.forename: Yong-fu
authors.initials: YF
authors.lastname: Shao
authors.forename: Cheng-feng
authors.initials: CF
authors.lastname: Wang
authors.forename: Hong-wei
authors.initials: HW
authors.lastname: Lin
authors.forename: Yan-tao
authors.initials: YT
authors.lastname: Tian
authors.forename: Yue-min
authors.initials: YM
authors.lastname: Sun
mesh_terms: D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D044963:Biopsy, Fine-Needle; D018288:Carcinoma, Small Cell / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000556:secondary* / Q000628:therapy; D003131:Combined Modality Therapy; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006801:Humans; D008175:Lung Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D008279:Magnetic Resonance Imaging; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000175:diagnosis / Q000556:secondary* / Q000628:therapy; D011379:Prognosis; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D013274:Stomach Neoplasms / Q000473:pathology; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed