Pancreatic Incidentalomas: High Rate of Potentially Malignant Tumors

Background Pancreatic incidentaloma (PI) is an increasingly common diagnosis that has received little attention. We characterized these tumors and compared them with symptomatic pancreatic tumors (nonincidentaloma [NI]). Study Design A retrospective database of 475 consecutive pancreatectomies that were performed from January 1995 to June 2007 at our institution was analyzed. Data for PI and NI patient cohorts were compared. Results Sixty-four PIs (13.5%) and 411 NIs (86.5%) were identified; 21% of pancreatic body and tail tumors versus 9% of tumors located in the pancreatic head were incidentally diagnosed (p = 0.001). Twenty-two PIs (34%) versus 278 NIs (67%) were malignant (p Conclusions Operation for PI is common, and a substantial proportion of these lesions might be malignant or premalignant. Resection of these early tumors in asymptomatic individuals is associated with improved survival, as compared with patients with symptomatic disease.