[Carcinoma and acute pancreatitis--case reports]

The coexistence of pancreatic carcinoma with severe form of acute pancreatitis (AP) is not only an extremely rare phenomenon described in literature but also a real problem in the aspect of differential diagnostics of neoplastic and inflammatory morphological changes in this organ. The study objective was the analysis of clinical material obtained from patients with inflammatory and neoplastic lesions, treated surgically in I Department of General and Endocrinological Surgery, Medical University of Bialystok in the years 1980-2005. Of these patients, 7 had pancreatic carcinoma at various stages of advancement diagnosed in the late postoperative period after severe form of AP. Patients' history, physical examination as well as biochemical tests and imaging diagnostic procedures (ultrasonography, CT) of the abdominal cavity explicitly showed severe form of acute pancreatitis. In every case, CA19-9 antigen values were substantially elevated (mean 780 +/-325 IU/ml, norm 0-37 IU/ml). Histopathological analyses of samples collected during laparotomy revealed the presence of necrotic-purulent tissues. In the late postoperative period, i.e. 3-24 months, all these patients were reoperated on for pancreatic carcinoma or its metastases. Only in one case, radical Whipple surgery was performed. All the remaining patients underwent palliative procedures or samples for histopathological examinations were only collected. In all the seven cases, metastatic carcinoma was diagnosed, including pancreatic carcinoma in 6 patients. These observations seem to indicate that severe AP may be insidiously accompanied by pancreatic carcinoma and that this coexistence should always be taken into consideration.