[Differential diagnosis of pancreatitis: metastasis to the pancreas]

A case report is given of a patient with a metastasizing teratocarcinoma of the testis (ripe teratoma and embryonal carcinoma), which was misinterpreted in the beginning as acute pancreatitis. At post mortem, metastases of this tumour were found in the pancreas, which apparently had led to inflammatory lesions of this organ, which could not explain however all of the clinical symptoms seen before. The literature dealing with cases suffering from acute pancreatitis induced by tumours is reviewed. A list of possible associations between pancreatitis and tumours is given.