Abstract
One hundred sixty seven cases of pancreatic carcinoma accumulated in the ten years between January, 1975 and December, 1984 are reviewed. After careful analysis of the pancreatograms, 7 cases with the characteristic findings on pancreatogram of mucin-producing pancreatic cancer are reported. This is the first clinical report dealing with mucin-producing pancreatic cancer.
Furthermore, 13 cases of cancer in the head of the pancreas which showed no dilatation of the main pancreatic duct, due to the existence of a patent Wirsung or Santorini duct, are discussed. Diagnosis of such cancers requires fine demonstration of both ducts or canulation of the major and minor papilla.
Several classifications of the ERCP findings in pancreatic cancer have been proposed, but each depended only on the radiographic analysis of stenosis and obstruction of the main pancreatic duct, and they had little predictive significance for either surgical resectability or prognosis.
This new ERCP classification in which tumors divided into four types, including mucin-producing pancreatic cancer and cancer in the head of the pancreas without dilatation of the main duct, has proved to have a close relation to resectability and prognosis.
Six patients survived more than five years after resection, showing a five years survival rate of 3.6%.
