Abstract
We herein describe a case of pancreatic non-functioning endocrine tumor with extrapancreatic lesions that complicated tumor diagnosis (benign or malignant). A 42-year-old woman was referred to us with a pancreatic tumor that was incidentally identified during a health check-up. Radiological and endoscopic examinations revealed the following findings : a calcified tumor of 3-cm diameter in the pancreas tail and adhered to the stomach, occlusion of the splenic vein, and several calcified nodules scattered around the stomach. Furthermore, positron emission tomography-computed tomography revealed 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose accumulation in the tumor. On the basis of these findings we performed a distal pancreatectomy and partial resection of the stomach.
Microscopic examinations revealed that the nodules were scattered from the pancreatic tumor ; the tumor was a non-functioning endocrine tumor classified as the well-differentiated tumor with borderline malilgnancy according to the WHO classification criteria. Because she had 2 experiences of blunt abdominal trauma during childhood, the extrapancreatic lesions might be caused by the trauma and the peritoneal nodules might be implanted from the original tumor. Although she has shown good recovery at 1 year after surgery, care should be taken to avoid possible relapse of the disease.
