Related Experiment Video
Updated: Apr 5, 2026
Author Spotlight: Reprogramming Cancer Cells to iPSCs to Study Disease Progression and Treatment Targets
Published on: February 2, 2024
Predictors and Diagnostic Strategies for Early-Stage Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma: A Retrospective Study
Hideyo Kimura1, Takao Ohtsuka, Taketo Matsunaga
1From the Departments of *Surgery and Oncology, †Anatomic Pathology, ‡Medicine and Bioregulatory Science, and §Clinical Radiology, Graduate School of Medical Sciences, Kyushu University, Fukuoka, Japan.
Objectives:
As a strategy to diagnose early-stage pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is urgently needed, we aimed to clarify characteristics of early-stage PDAC.
Methods:
We retrospectively reviewed medical records of 299 consecutive patients who underwent R0 or R1 surgical resection for PDAC between 1994 and 2013 and compared clinical characteristics between patients with early-stage (stages 0-I by Japanese General Rules for Pancreatic Cancer) and advanced-stage (stages II-IV) disease. Diagnostic processes were also analyzed.
Results:
Twenty-four patients (8%) had early-stage PDAC (stage 0: 11; stage I: 13). Univariate and multivariate analyses showed that presence or history of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (P < 0.01), history of pancreatitis (P < 0.01), and presence or history of extrapancreatic malignancies (P = 0.01) independently predicted detection of early-stage PDAC. Cytological examination during endoscopic retrograde pancreatography cytology was ∼65% sensitive in preoperative diagnosis of early-stage PDAC, whereas other imaging modalities were only 29% to 38% sensitive; 9 of 24 early-stage PDACs were diagnosed by endoscopic retrograde pancreatography cytology alone.
Conclusions:
Endoscopic retrograde pancreatography cytology for patients with intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm or pancreatitis may help diagnose early-stage PDAC. Surveillance of extrapancreatic malignancies might also provide opportunities to detect early-stage PDAC as a second malignancy.
