Carcinoma of the pancreas in Iraq

This paper presents clinical observations on 130 patients with carcinoma of the pancreas, including 19 with periampullary cancer, the first large study of this disease in Iraq. All of the patients were admitted to the First (one of three) Surgical Unit of the University of Baghdad Teaching Hospital (the Medical City) during the period 1965-1977. The diagnosis and extent of disease were confirmed surgically in all patients. The clinical presentation, histopathologic characteristics, and prognostic features of the disease in Iraq seem no different from those seen in other parts of the world. Though relatively uncommon (1.4% of all male and 1.2% of all female cancers in the Baghdad Cancer Registry), cancer of the pancreas is the second most common tumor of the digestive system, next to that of the stomach.