Adenosquamous carcinoma of the pancreas with the special feature of strong uptake on FDG-PET

Abstract

A 58-year-old female visited our hospital because of a pancreatic head tumor that had been detected by CT during an examination for recurrent chronic pancreatitis. FDG-PET showed a strong accumulation at the same location as detected by CT. The SUV max for the tumor was 10.7.
Pylorus preserving pancreatoduodenectomy was performed under a preoperative diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.
Histopathological examination revealed moderately to poorly differentiated squamous carcinoma and moderately to well differentiated adenocarcinoma. It was diagnosed as an adenosquamous carcinoma of the pancreas.
Adenosquamous carcinoma is a very rare tumor of the pancreas. It accounts for 0.9% of pancreatic tumors by the Nation-wide Pancreatic Cancer Registry of Japan Pancreas Society.
Usually, the SUV of the common pancreatic cancer is less than 10 by FDG-PET. It is suggested that a pancreatic tumor with a SUV higher than 10 by FDG-PET could be a special pathological type of tumor other than common invasive pancreatic cancer.