Chronic pancreatitis as a risk factor for pancreatic cancer (a clinical case)

Abstract

The differential diagnosis between chronic pancreatitis (CP) and pancreatic cancer (PC) is a challenging issue in the clinical practice, taking into account common risk factors shared by these disorders (smoking, obesity, diabetes mellitus and insulin resistance), as well as a high risk of PC development against the underlying CP of 2 to 3 years' duration; this risk would be manifold in hereditary CP. The article presents a clinical case of PC in a 60-year old man at three years after he had been diagnosed with CP. The disease manifested from an acute episode of pancreatitis, which was treated in a hospital. Two years later, the patient suffered from acute destructive pancreatitis complicated by portal vein thrombosis and formation of pseudocysts. Subsequently, there was a rupture of the post-necrotic cyst with leakage into the abdominal cavity; this required surgical intervention. The differential diagnosis between CP and PC was done at all steps of the diagnostic work-up and treatment. However, after the inflammation resolved, there was a period of apparent well-being, during which the patient developed PC. This clinical case is intended to draw attention of clinicians, while making differential diagnosis, to the detailed past history assessment, use of multiaxial computed tomography with intravenous bolus contrast enhancement, and endoscopic ultrasound examination with elastography. In difficult cases, regular follow-up of at least every three months would be necessary.