In patients with a space-occupying lesion of the pancreas at first a primary ductal adenocarcinoma is considered as the cause. Other tumours or metastases are assumed to occur very rarely. Therapy and prognosis of other pancreas tumours differ from therapy and prognosis of a primary ductal adenocarcinoma. We therefore examined the question of how frequently a space-occupying lesion of the pancreas was not due to a ductal adenocarcinoma in our case materials. Retrospectively 70 patients who had undergone a percutaneous puncture of a space-occupying mass of the pancreas under ultrasonographic control were included in the study (34 women, 36 men). In 62 patients a clear histological diagnosis was possible on the basis of the biopsy. In 53 cases (76 %) a primary adenocarcinoma of the pancreas could be diagnosed. In 5 patients (7 %) these masses turned out to be metastases of a previously known malignant tumour disease (2 x mammary carcinoma, 2 x gastric carcinoma, 1 x sigmoid carcinoma). Other tumours could be detected in 4 cases (6 %) including a tuberculoma, an endocrine tumour, a fusocellular sarcoma with partial neurogenic differentiation and a large-cell and pleomorphic-cell anaplastic, partly sarcomatoid carcinoma. In patients with a space-occupying lesion of the pancreas, tumours other than a ductal adenocarcinoma are not rare. In particular, in cases of a previously known malignant tumour disease a space-occupying lesion of the pancreas can also turn out to be a metastasis. Every other individual tumour entity is rare. Other tumour entities at large, however, are found in daily routine. The preoperative biopsy of space-occupying lesions of the pancreas, therefore, still has a clinical importance for the further therapy planning.
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