Mucinous cystadenocarcinoma of the pancreas - outcome following different modes of treatment.
BACKGROUND
Mucinous cystadenocarcinomas (MCAC) of the pancreas are rare tumors. When localized to the pancreas alone, surgical resection is mostly associated with a favorable prognosis. The potential value of palliative treatment with chemotherapy for irresectable disease is scarcely described though. The aim of this study was to describe a single-center series of patients with MCAC of the pancreas focusing on the outcome following different treatment strategies.


METHODS
15 patients, 10 females and 5 males, with histologically or cytologically verified MCAC, were divided into three groups: surgical resection (n=7), chemotherapy (n=5) and no treatment (n=3).


RESULTS
There was no obvious difference in gender distribution between the subgroups. A tendency towards higher age was seen in the group without treatment, as was a larger tumor size as compared to the chemotherapy group. Patients were administered chemotherapy and the group without treatment seemed to present with the same prevalence of metastatic disease (3/5 and 2/3, respectively). All patients in the group without treatment died after in median 1 month following pathological diagnosis. One patient in the chemotherapy group was alive at 9-month follow up, and the others survived a median of 11 months. In the surgically treated group, 4/7 were alive at follow-up of a median of 154 months. Of the three deceased patients who had survived 44, 53 and 151 months, respectively, two had microscopically non-radical resection.


CONCLUSIONS
MCAC of the pancreas is, when locally confined and without metastases, associated with fairly good prognosis after surgical resection. In inoperable patients and for metastatic disease, outcome is poor.
Departments of Surgery Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University and Skåne University Hospital Lund (Josefin Björk Werner, Christian Sturesson, Roland Andersson).
Josefin
J
Björk Werner
Departments of Surgery Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University and Skåne University Hospital Lund (Josefin Björk Werner, Christian Sturesson, Roland Andersson).
Christian
C
Sturesson
Pathology and Cytology, Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University and Skåne University Hospital Lund (Sigmund Dawiskiba).
Sigmund
S
Dawiskiba
Departments of Surgery Clinical Sciences Lund, Lund University and Skåne University Hospital Lund (Josefin Björk Werner, Christian Sturesson, Roland Andersson).
Roland
R
Andersson
chemotherapy; mucinous cystadenocarcinoma; outcome; pancreas; surgery