Operative finding, treatment, and prognosis of carcinoma of the pancreas: an analysis of 267 cases.

Two hundred sixty-seven laparotomized patients with pancreatic cancer during the period 1947 to 1980 were retrospectively analyzed. In 199 histologically confirmed cases of pancreatic carcinoma the tumor was only local with no invasion to neighboring tissues or distant metastases in 15% of the cases at the primary laparotomy and diagnosis stages, and the survival rates after 1, 3, and 5 years were 22%, 3% and 1%, respectively. The prognosis was a little better if a patient was over 70 years old, duration of symptoms was more than one year, the reason for laparotomy was cholecystopathy, the tumor was stage I, the treatment was a combination therapy of pancreatic resection and postoperative irradiation (with a depth dose of greater than or equal to 4,000 rad). We concluded that, excluding the extremely rare cases of pancreatic carcinoma which are cured with pancreatic resection, the survival of patients after primary operation is correlated nearly in the same way with the given treatment and the stage of the disease. It seems that at present the only possibility of improving the results of treatment in pancreatic carcinoma is to develop the combined treatment of surgery, irradiation, and chemotherapy.