Synchronous or metachronous double cancers of the pancreas and other organs: Report on 12 cases

Pancreatic carcinoma carries a poor prognosis, especially invasive ductal c arcinoma of the pancreas. This retrospective study describes the results of the treatment and prognosis for double cancers in which cancer of the panc reas was associated with malignancies in other organs in 12 patients who we re diagnosed and treated at Kurume University Hospital. The patients includ ed 4 women and 8 men, with an average age of 67 years. Of the 12 tumors, 7 were metachronous pancreatic cancers which occurred after resections of oth er organ malignancies. Five patients had synchronous double cancers, one of whom was diagnosed to have gastric cancer on admission. Two other patients of this group were diagnosed to have lung cancer, while the remaining 2 pa tients suffered from colon cancer. By the time pancreatic cancer was diagno sed, gastrectomies had been performed in 7 patients for either gastric canc er or ulcers. In addition, one patient underwent a hysterectomy for uterine carcinoma and another received a low anterior resection for rectal carcino ma. Four of 5 patients in the synchronous group had nonresectable tumors an d a palliative bypass operation was performed in 2 of these patients. Six p atients who had metachronous double cancers died because of pancreatic canc er recurrence or metastases. We conclude that the prognosis of double cance rs, where cancer of the pancreas is associated with other organ malignancie s, primarily depends on the prognosis of the pancreatic carcinoma, and the present study suggests the necessity of long-term follow-up examinations fo r gastrectomy patients in order to make an early diagnosis of pancreatic ca ncer.