A Case of Mucin-producing Pancreatic Cancer Preoperatively Diagnosed with Ultrasound-guided Fine Needle Aspiration Biopsy

Hirotoshi Maruo, Masahisa Houjou, Akio Kosaka

Department of Surgery, Shimizu City Hospital

We recently experienced a typical case of so-called mucin-producing pancreatic cancer. The patient was a 77-year-old woman. By an abdominal ultrasonic screening examination for cystitis, marked dilatation of the main pancreatic duct and a papillomatous tumor at the head of the pancreas were detected. Duodenoscopy revealed enlargement of the major papilla, patulous orifice of the major papilla and secretion of mucin. Endoscopic retrograde pancreaticography showed dilatation of the entire main pancreatic duct and a filling defect due to the tumor at the head of the pancreas. By ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy, the tumor was diagnosed cytologically as Class V, and the final diagnosis was mucin-producing pancreatic cancer. Pancreatoduodenectomy was performed and the histopathological finding was intraductal papillary adenocarcinoma proliferating chiefly in the main pancreatic duct. No metastasis was found and this operation was a curative resection. Although there is no established diagnostic standard or classification of mucin-producing pancreatic cancer (tumor). We obtained sufficient typical findings of so-called mucin-producing pancreatic cancer in this case. We confirmed that preoperative ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy is helpful for a definite diagnosis.

Key words
mucin-producing pancreatic cancer, ultrasound-guided fine needle aspiration biopsy

Reprint requests
Hirotoshi Maruo Department of Surgery, Shimizu City Hospital
1231 Miyakami, Shimizu, 424 JAPAN

Accepted
October 9, 1991

To read the PDF file you will need Abobe Reader installed on your computer.