Pancreatic carcinoma carries a poor prognosis, especially invasive
ductal carcinoma of the pancreas. This retrospective study describes the results of the treatment and prognosis for double
cancers in which
cancer of the pancreas was associated with
malignancies in other organs in 12 patients who were diagnosed and treated at Kurume University Hospital. The patients included 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 other 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 patients suffered from
colon cancer. By the time
pancreatic cancer was diagnosed,
gastrectomies had been performed in 7 patients for either
gastric cancer or
ulcers. In addition, one patient underwent a
hysterectomy for uterine
carcinoma and another received a low anterior resection for rectal
carcinoma. Four of 5 patients in the synchronous group had nonresectable
tumors and a palliative bypass operation was performed in 2 of these patients. Six patients who had metachronous double
cancers died because of
pancreatic cancer recurrence or
metastases. We conclude that the prognosis of double
cancers, where
cancer of the pancreas is associated with other organ
malignancies, primarily depends on the prognosis of the
pancreatic carcinoma, and the present study suggests the necessity of long-term follow-up examinations for
gastrectomy patients in order to make an early diagnosis of
pancreatic cancer.