Abstract
Pancreatic carcinosarcoma is a rare neoplasm consisting of 2 malignant components : epithelial and mesenchymal cells.
An 83-year-old woman was referred for a mass in the pancreatic body that had been detected incidentally during abdominal CT for ischemic colitis. The radiologic findings and blood examination suggested pancreatic cancer, and a distal pancreatectomy was performed. Histologically, the tumor showed exhibited 3 differentiated components, namely, well-differentiated ductal adenocarcinoma, sarcoma, and neuroendocrine tumor. The results of immunohistopathological and K-ras sequence analyses suggested that these tumors could have been of monoclonal origin. The patient died 10 months after the surgery due to multiple liver metastasis, and an autopsy was performed. We believe that this case is significant in the study of pancreatic tumor origin.
