Introduction: Pancreatic carcinoma is one of the diseases which mostly fail to be diagnosed on a timely basis, and there is no way to effectively screen patients for pancreatic carcinoma either. An option for the diagnosis of the "early glandular carcinoma" therefore resides in identification and systematic screening of patients with risk of pancreatic carcinoma.
Method: We monitored 223 patients with chronic pancreatitis on a systematic basis from 1992 to 2005. During this 14-year period, we monitored the number of cigarettes smoked per year in addition to standard parametres measured by biochemical methods, endosonography, CT and ERCP exams, and assigned the alcoholic form of chronic pancreatitis to patients consuming more than 80g of alcohol per day on a systematic basis for more than 5 years in the case of men, and 50 g of alcohol per day in the case of women, and classed the patients according the TIGARO classification.
Results: Alcoholic etiology was proven in 73.1% of the examined patients, chronic obstructive form of pancreatitis was diagnosed in 21.5% of patients, and only 5.4% of patients were classified into the idiopathic pancreatitis group. Pancreatic carcinoma in the region of chronic pancreatitis was found in 13 patients (5.8%); stomach carcinoma was diagnosed in 3 patients with chronic pancreatitis, and oesophageal carcinoma in 1 patient of the total of patients monitored. Malignant pancreatic disease was diagnosed primarily in patients with alcoholic pancreatitis (4.5%). During the period of 14 years, 11 patients died, 8 of the deaths being associated with pancreatic carcinoma.
Conclusion: Both pancreatic and extrapancreatic carcinoma in gastrointestinal location is a serious complication of protracted chronic, non-hereditary pancreatitis. Systematic identification and treatment of patients with chronic pancreatitis is therefore necessary for timely diagnosis ofgastrointestinal and pancreatic malignancies.