The autopsy material from the Institute of Pathology of the Faculty of Medicine of the Humboldt University (Charité) in Berlin for the years 1970 to 1984 was analyzed with respect to the presence of pancreatic carcinoma and a long history of chronic, non-obstructive pancreatitis. A total of 20,515 adult sections were reviewed. 331 (1.6%) of these had carcinoma of the exocrine pancreas. 75 pancreata were dissected in tail-to-head direction into 10 blocks. In 12 (16%) of them a chronic non-obstructive pancreatitis or pancreatic scarring as a result of pancreatitis could be demonstrated histologically. The possibility of a relationship between pancreatitis and pancreatic carcinoma is considered, in particular with respect to pre-malignant changes and latency of the latter. Comprehensive analysis and evaluation of the present study material, together with a critical evaluation of the literature, support the viewpoint that long-term, chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic carcinoma have a common pathogenic basis and that chronic pancreatitis may be regarded as an antecedent event for the neoplasm.
In the hands of an experienced endoscopist ERCP is an important method for the diagnosis of biliopancreatic diseases of Billroth II patients, but less effective than in nonoperated patients. Percutaneous procedures increase the success rate of nonoperative therapy. We report our own results of in 386 Billroth II patients: Success rate of diagnostic ERCP was 73.6% (284/386). Interventional endoscopy was performed in 192 patients: Successful EST was carried out in 93.6% (160/171), and complete extraction of bile duct stones was achieved in 74.8% (107/143), sufficient bile drainage was achieved by placement of transpapillary endoprostheses in 96.3% (79/82), while successful PTCD and percutaneous therapy were performed in 21 cases. Technical problems result from a long afferent loop, the upside-down position in the duodenal stump and difficult bile duct anatomy. We observed a complications rate of 3.6% (14/386) and a mortality of 0.5% (2/386). Our results are comparable with those in the literature, in which a similar number of difficult patients are included.
Through a survey 751 patients, in whom an endoscopic papillotomy (EPT) had been tried, were registered to the end of 1981. EPT was technically successful in 695 cases (92,5%). Control investigations were available for 650 patients, the aim of therapy being achieved in 594 cases (91,4%). The main indication was choledocholithiasis, 90,2%--among them 10% with gallbladder in situ--followed by benign papillary stenosis without stones (5,9%), carcinoma of the Vaterian papilla (3,2%) and rare indications such as ascaridiasis, choledochocele and stones of the pancreatic duct (0,7%). 53 patients suffered from more serious complications (7,6%), 18 had to be operated on (2,6%), and 7 patients died due to EPT (1%). The results are in agreement with those of other statistics from various countries.
The bad prognosis of exocrine pancreas carcinoma manifests itself by a high incidence of recidivation, early metastasis formation and a low 5-year survival rate of 1-2% on an average has not essentially been improved in recent times although progress is evident in diagnosis as well as in surgical, radiological and cytostatic therapy. The unfavourable course of illnesses is due to the symptomless early phase rather than the existing diagnostic potential. Thus, a recording, standardization and definition of pancreatic duct atypias is a necessity for optimizing the pattern of examinations. Topographically, the structure of pancreatic parenchyma may be classified by 1) interlobular ducts; 2) intralobular ducts; 3) intercalated ducts; 4) centroacinar cells, and 5) acinar cells. Based on this matrix, entities of varying diagnostic relevance may be derived, i.e. 1) orthological histiomorphological tissue formations; 2) hyperplastic epithelial changes; 3) metaplastic epithelial formations; and 4) atypical hyperplasias. Beyond this, there are numerous indications of a redifferentiation of numerous pancreatic cell types, primarily of acinar cells. The close relationships between ductal and acinar cells may be subsumed as a terminal ductulo-acinar intercalated duct complex. Against the background of chronic pancreatitis and corresponding length of history (< 6.5 years), cancer may develop in up to 16% of cases. On the molecularbiological level, point mutations of the K-ras gene, a mutation or deletion of the p53 suppressor gene and an excess production of the c-erbB-2 protooncogene are found in a great number of pancreatic carcinomas.(ABSTRACT TRUNCATED AT 250 WORDS)
The structures of normal ductal and ductular epithelium were compared with cytological peculiarities of pancreas carcinoma. This provided the basis on which to propose histogenetic classification of exocrine pancreas carcinoma. Most of the pancreas carcinomas are adenocarcinomas and originate from small lateral ductules. Preneoplastic ductal alterations, such as proliferation of ductal epithelium, adenomatous dysplasia, and light-cell transformation, may be topographically distinguished from ductular changes, including centroacinic hyperplasia, oncocytic transformation, microglandular metaplasia, ductulo-acinic metaplasia, hepatocellular metaplasia, and peri-insular metaplasia. The close correlations that exist between ductular and acinic cells may be summarised under the cover term of terminal ductulo-acinic intercalated duct complex. Dysplasia is generally accompanied by decline in neutral glycosaminoglycans and occurrence of unsubstituted sialomucin of the embryonic type.
