[Pancreatic cancer in Geneva. Anatomic-clinical study on 177 cases]

Carcinoma of the pancreas ranks in the 4th place among the causes of death due to tumour in the U.S.A. and the 5th in Geneva. 177 cases of pancreatic carcinoma (necropsies, resections and biopsies) were examined at the Geneva Departement of Pathology between July 1st, 1971 and December 31st, 1978. There was an equal sex distribution among the post-mortem cases while a female predominance (1.5x) was found in the cases obtained by biopsy or surgical resection. The mean age was higher in necropsy cases (69.6 years) than in surgical cases (61.2 years). The most common site was the head of the pancreas (57.5%). Adenocarcinoma was the predominant histologic type (86.5%). The majority of metastases found at necropsy were in the liver (61.3%), regional lymph nodes (51.1%), peritoneum (27.7%) and lungs (26.3%). The most frequent causes of death were lung embolism (24%), bronchopneumonia (16%), tumour or metastases (14.6%) or cachexia (8.8%). Prognosis was always severe, with an average survival time varying between 4 and 10 months depending on the type of surgical treatment (palliative surgery or resection). These results are similar to those of other series in the literature.