Related Experiment Video
Updated: Aug 2, 2025

Author Spotlight: Reprogramming Cancer Cells to iPSCs to Study Disease Progression and Treatment Targets
Published on: February 2, 2024
Referral and treatment patterns in pancreatic acinar cell carcinoma: A regional population-level analysis
Ranish K Patel1, Michael Parappilly2, Thomas L Sutton1
1Oregon Heath & Science University (OHSU), Department of Surgery, Division of General Surgery, Portland, OR, 97239, USA.
Background:
Pancreatic acinar cell carcinoma (PACC) is a rare exocrine tumor of the pancreas. We evaluated the effect disease stage, surgical intervention, and institutional volume status plays in survival.
Methods:
We queried the Oregon State Cancer Registry for patients with PACC from 1997 to 2018. Treatment and referral patterns were analyzed, and overall survival (OS) was evaluated with Kaplan-Meier and Cox-proportional hazard analysis.
Results:
43 patients were identified. Median OS was 33.1 and 7.1 months in those with locoregional and metastatic disease respectively (p = 0.008). Surgical intervention was associated with improved OS (hazard ratio 0.28, p < 0.0001). High volume center (HVC) care trended towards improving OS. While the majority of cases were diagnosed at low volume centers (74%), referral to HVCs was rare (n = 4) and limited to advanced (stage III/IV) disease.
Conclusion:
Stage and surgical resection influence survival outcomes in PACC, more data is needed to delineate the impact of institutional volume status.

