A Case of So-called Carcinosarcoma of the Pancreatic Head

Naohito Kanazumi, Yuichi Suzuki, Aya Motoyama, Daisuke Kobayashi, Kouichi Kato, Kazuki Yokoi, Jiro Kimura, Takayuki Murase^* and Masataka Ishii

Department of Surgery, Okazaki City Hospital
Department of Pathology II, Nagoya City University Medical School^*

We report a rare case of so-called carcinosarcoma of the pancreatic head. A 77-year-old man with a 5 cm low echoic tumor in the pancreatic head found in abdominal ultrasonography (US) for abdominal fullness was further found in abdominal computed tomography (CT) to have a tumor with central necrosis in the pancreatic head and the 2nd portion of the duodenum, so we conducted pancreatoduodenectomy based on a diagnosis of malignant tumor either in the pancreatic head or at submucosa of the duodenum. The tumor was 6×7×4.5 cm and occupied the region between the pancreatic head and submucosa of the duodenum. Histopathological findings showed both moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma and pleomorphic sarcoma in the tumor. The definitive diagnosis was so-called carcinosarcoma of the pancreas. Despite curative resection, the patient died on postoperative day 65 due to multiple liver metastasis. Carcinosarcoma of the pancreas is rare, with our case being only the 10th reported in the Japanese literature.

Key words
carcinosarcoma, pancreas

Reprint requests
Naohito Kanazumi Department of Surgery, Okazaki City Hospital 3-1 Goshoai, Koryuji-cho, Okazaki, 444-8553 JAPAN

Accepted
February 26, 2003

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