Clinical analysis of uncinate process carcinoma of the pancreas

To analyse the clinical features of uncinate process carcinoma of the pancreas and the diagnosis and treatment of this malignancy.

Fifty-nine patients with pancreas uncinate process carcinoma treated from January 1998 to September 2002 at our hospital were analysed retrospectively.

Major symptoms of these patients were upper abdominal pain accompanied with lumbar pain, body weight loss and jaundice. Thirty-seven patients received regional pancreaticoduodenectomy (RP), 16 partial resection of the superior mesenteric vein-portal vein (SMV-PV) or superior mesenteric artery (SMA) and reconstruction, 1 anhydrous alcohol injection in the celiac nerve plexus, regional chemotherapy via a chemotherapy pump, and liver biopsy, and 5 no operation. The survival of the patients after operation was 2-46 months (median 12.1 months). Eleven patients are still alive with a longest survival of 46 months. The 1- and 3-year survival rates were 37.7% and 5.6%.

Pancreas uncinate process carcinoma invading the adjacent SMV/SMA-PV causes difficulty in early diagnosis and poor prognosis, which are related to its location, not tumor's aggressive nature. This carcinoma has a high resection rate of 89.8%.