Multiple Carcinomas and Intraepithelial Neoplasms in a Case of Familial Pancreatic Cancer: Rapid Morphological Changes in the Pancreatic Cyst and Pathological Lesions Undetected by Clinical Images

Intern Med. 2020 Apr 15;59(8):1041-1046. doi: 10.2169/internalmedicine.3882-19. Epub 2020 Jan 9.

Abstract

A 69-year-old woman with a family history of pancreatic cancer was referred because of imaging changes of a pancreas cyst. Magnetic resonance cholangiopancreatography showed a faintly dilated main pancreatic duct and a pancreas body cyst that had changed rapidly over the past year. Computed tomography demonstrated an emerging enhancing lesion in the pancreatic cyst. Endoscopic ultrasonography revealed an irregular-margined, heterogeneous-echoic pancreatic mass, without findings of early chronic pancreatitis. She underwent distal pancreatectomy. A histologic examination of the resected specimen revealed invasive adenocarcinoma with numerous multicentric foci of pancreatic intraepithelial neoplasia (PanIN), including high-grade PanIN, apparently separate from the main cancer.

Keywords: PanIN; cyst; diagnosis; familial; pancreatic cancer.

Publication types

  • Case Reports

MeSH terms

  • Adenocarcinoma / pathology
  • Adenocarcinoma / surgery
  • Aged
  • Carcinoma / diagnostic imaging
  • Carcinoma / pathology*
  • Carcinoma / surgery
  • Carcinoma in Situ / pathology
  • Carcinoma in Situ / surgery
  • Cholangiopancreatography, Magnetic Resonance
  • Endosonography
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Pancreas / pathology
  • Pancreatectomy
  • Pancreatic Cyst / pathology
  • Pancreatic Neoplasms / diagnostic imaging
  • Pancreatic Neoplasms / pathology*
  • Pancreatic Neoplasms / surgery
  • Tomography, X-Ray Computed

Supplementary concepts

  • Pancreatic carcinoma, familial