Pancreatic cancer complicated by disseminated intravascular coagulation associated with production of tissue factor.

A 54-year-old man was diagnosed as having pancreatic cancer and disseminated intravascular coagulation. His plasma tissue factor level on the 11th hospital day was 996 pg/ml (normal range, 120-270 pg/ml). He was treated with gabexate mesilate, antithrombin III, and low-molecular-weight heparin. However, he died of multiple organ failure on the 17th hospital day. The histological finding was poorly differentiated ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas, and the production of tissue factor in this lesion was revealed. Tissue factor is a factor that initiates blood coagulation; thus, its expression in pancreatic cancer is one of the causes of coagulation abnormalities in this disease. Although one report has demonstrated immunoreactivity for tissue factor in pancreatic cancer, the patient's detailed clinical course was not mentioned in that report. This is the first report to prove that pancreatic cancer produced tissue factor in a patient with disseminated intravascular coagulation.