Carcinoma of the pancreas

Study of hospital records of 146 patients with carcinoma of the pancreas from 1952 to 1971 revealed that 74 per cent had had abdominal pain and 65 per cent jaundice. Abdominal pain was the commonest symptom of carcinoma of the head as well as of the body and tail. Diabetes mellitus was four times as common among the patients with carcinoma of the pancreas as among the population in general. The interval between the onset of symptoms and diagnosis of the disease was the same in both decades of the 20-year period, but the survival time after operation was longer in the second 10-year period. Pancreatoduodenectomy was possible in only four of the 138 patients operated on, and one of them died postoperatively. The three patients who survived the operation survived significantly longer than the 87 in whom an anastomosis had been established between the bile ducts and the intestine. Forty-one patients were subjected to surgical exploration only. No difference in survival time was found between the two last-mentioned groups.