Splenic vascular occlusion occurring with pancreatic cancer.

Introduction. - Pancreatic cancer is responsible for 6,000 deaths per year in France. During the course of the disease, venous thrombosis is common. C onversely, arterial thrombosis is rarely described. Exegesis. - We report the case of a 59-year-old patient with pancreatic ade nocarcinoma. Treatment by gemcitabine allowed rapid and persistent improvem ent of the body weight and a prolonged survival (18 months). Sudden complic ation, i.e. splenic arterial thrombosis, reversed the favorable outcome. Conclusion. - Splenic venous thrombosis is a frequent complication occurrin g in the course of pancreatic cancer. It is easily diagnosed using abdomina l computerized tomography. Arterial thrombosis is rarely observed. It might be due to either sporadic, unexpected, occurrence of cases related to the evolution of underlying pathological mechanisms, or to omitted treatment of vascular complications, as until the introduction of new anticancer drugs this disease was considered to be of very poor prognosis. (C) 2000 Editions scientifiques et medicales Elsevier SAS.