[Hematogenous metastasis in pancreatic cancer]

Out of 248 pancreatic cancer patients, 82 with hematogenous metastases were clinicopathologically analyzed. The incidence of hematogenous metastases on laparotomy were 31% in the liver, 1.2% in the lung, and 0.4% in the adrenal gland and navel. The incidence of liver metastasis, which was present in 23% and 46% of the patients with carcinoma of the head of the pancreas and of the body and tail of the pancreas, respectively, was higher than that of carcinomas of the other digestive organs. In the autopsy findings of the cases submitted to tumor resection, early metastases to the liver, lung, cerebellum and ovary were recognized to have occurred postoperatively. A higher rate of liver metastasis with lymph node involvement in the early stage of the disease was peculiar to pancreatic cancer.