The incidence of pancreatic and extrapancreatic cancers in Japanese patients with chronic pancreatitis.
OBJECTIVE
Although an association between chronic pancreatitis and malignancies has been reported in the Western literature, in Japan there have been few reports that have dealt with this issue. We investigated the incidence of pancreatic and extrapancreatic cancers in Japanese patients with chronic pancreatitis.


METHODS
We studied 170 Japanese patients with definite chronic pancreatitis with respect to the occurrence of pancreatic and extrapancreatic cancers during follow-up and compared the incidence with that reported in the Western literature.


RESULTS
The patients developed 29 cancers including 5 pancreatic cancers. Four patients had two different types of cancer. The extrapancreatic cancer incidence (24/170: 14.1%) was significantly higher than in the West (8.3%, p < 0.01). The major organs in which cancer developed were stomach (n=9), pancreas (n=5), esophagus (n=4), colon (n=3), lung (n=2) and hemopoietic tissue (n=2). The overall incidence (8.2%) of associated cancers of the digestive system including, stomach, intestine, liver, biliary duct, and gallbladder, was significantly higher than in the West (1.3%, p < 0.01).


CONCLUSIONS
The risk of extrapancreatic cancers during the course of chronic pancreatitis is significantly increased in Japan than in Western countries. In particular, cancers of the digestive system are frequently associated with chronic pancreatitis in Japan.
Kamisawa
Terumi
T
Department of Internal Medicine, Tokyo Metropolitan Komagome Hospital, Tokyo, Japan. kamisawa@cick.jp
Tu
Yuyang
Y
Egawa
Naoto
N
Nakajima
Hitoshi
H
Tsuruta
Kouji
K
Okamoto
Atsutake
A
D000368:Aged; D005260:Female; D006801:Humans; D015994:Incidence; D007564:Japan / Q000453:epidemiology; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000150:complications* / Q000453:epidemiology*; D050500:Pancreatitis, Chronic / Q000150:complications*