[Evaluation of curative and palliative treatment of duodenal adenocarcinoma]

Primary adenocarcinoma of the duodenum is a rare disease in this part of the world, and data on survival following curative and palliative treatment are scarce.

All patients treated for duodenal cancer (DC) at the Department of Surgery, Odense University Hospital, between January 1995 and February 2006 were retrospectively evaluated. Tumours arising from the pancreatic head, the papilla of Vater, distal bile duct or tumour infiltration from surrounding organs (apart from the duodenum) were excluded.

Eleven (31%) of the 35 included patients (17 women and 18 men, median age 62 years, range 45-88 years) received a curative resection (R0 resection), while 24 patients had surgical or endoscopic palliation. Survival following R0 resection was significantly higher than survival in the palliative group (p = 0.0002). The median survival was 45 months (confidence interval (CI) 6- ) in the R0 group versus 5.3 months (CI 2-11) in the palliative group.

In a consecutive, but retrospective DC population, we found that only one third of the patients were candidates for a curative resection, and despite microscopical, radical surgery only one third were alive after five years.