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Characteristics of Early Pancreatic Cancer: Comparison between Stage 1A and Stage 1B Pancreatic Cancer in Multicenter
Hyo Suk Kim1, Young Hoon Choi2, Jae Sin Lee3
1Department of Internal Medicine, Bucheon St. Mary's Hospital, College of Medicine, The Catholic University of Korea, Bucheon 14647, Republic of Korea.
Background:
Little is known about the characteristics of early pancreatic cancer. We aimed to identify the characteristics, clues for early detection, and prognostic factors for early pancreatic cancer by analyzing a large number of patients with stage 1 pancreatic cancer.
Methods:
A clinical data warehouse that includes databases of all the medical records of eight academic institutions was used to select and analyze patients with pancreatic cancer that had been diagnosed from January 2010 to May 2023.
Results:
In total, 257 stage 1 pancreatic cancer patients were included. There were 134 men (52%), and the average age was 67.2 ± 9.9 years. Compared to patients with stage 1B pancreatic cancer (2-4 cm), patients with stage 1A pancreatic cancer (≤2 cm) had more tumors in the body and tail than in the head (p = 0.028), more new-onset diabetes and less old diabetes (p = 0.010), less jaundice (p = 0.020), more follow-up of IPMN (intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm, p = 0.029), and more histories of acute pancreatitis (p = 0.013). The pathological findings showed that stage 1A pancreatic cancer involved more IPMNs (p < 0.001) and lower pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (p = 0.004). IPMN was present in all 13 pancreatic tumors that were smaller than 1 cm. In multivariate analysis, positive resection margin (odds ratio [OR] 1.536, p = 0.040), venous invasion (OR 1.710, p = 0.010), and perineural invasion (OR 1.968, p = 0.002) were found to be risk factors affecting disease-free survival, while old diabetes (odds ratio [OS] 1.981, p = 0.003) and perineural invasion (OR 2.270, p = 0.003) were found to be risk factors affecting overall survival.
Conclusions:
IPMN is closely associated with early pancreatic cancer and may provide an opportunity for early detection. The presence of perineural invasion was a crucial prognostic factor for both overall and disease-free survival in patients with stage 1 pancreatic cancer.
