Malignancy in chronic pancreatitis: analysis of diagnostic procedures and proposal of a clinical algorithm.

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is characterized by its poor prognosis, and some benign conditions and syndromes, including chronic pancreatitis (CP), are risk factors for pancreatic carcinoma. However, the differential diagnosis of CP from PDAC is difficult for clinicians because PDAC frequently causes inflammation within the pancreas. Therefore, patients with CP exhibit not only an elevated risk of cancer, but they are also in danger of underdiagnosis.
METHODS: The present study retrospectively analyzed 29 patients with pancreatic cancer who fulfilled our definition of "chronic pancreatitis" to identify characteristics to aid in the differential diagnosis between chronic pancreatitis with and without pancreatic cancer. All parameters were subjected to univariate analysis.
RESULTS: We identified several factors that differed significantly between the CP patients and patients with CP and synchronous PDAC, and these characteristics were used to develop a diagnostic algorithm. The performance of the algorithm was externally validated in a different panel of patients from the Department of Surgery, Medical Faculty Mannheim.
CONCLUSION: The present study succeeded in identifying characteristics that significantly differed in patients with and without PDAC in CP. These characteristics were integrated in a diagnostic algorithm that might help to improve diagnostic of PDAC in CP.