Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: Eleven years of experience at a tertiary care hospital center.

INTRODUCTION AND AIM: Pancreatic cancer is considered one of the most aggressive solid tumors. In Mexico, it is the twelfth cause of cancer, with 4,489 cases diagnosed annually, and accounts for 4.9% of oncologic deaths. The aim of our study was to describe the clinical and epidemiologic characteristics of the patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer spanning an 11-year period at the Instituto Nacional de Ciencias Médicas y Nutrición "Salvador Zubirán".

METHODS: A retrospective, cross-sectional study was conducted that included 479 patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, within the time frame of 2003-2013. The documented findings were summarized through descriptive statistics.

RESULTS: Of the patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, 50.9% were women, and the mean patient age at diagnosis was 61.5 years. A total of 48.4% of the cases were diagnosed at clinical stage IV, 12.9% presented with clinical stage III, and 25.0% had localized disease. Surgery was performed on 37.5% of the patients, the most frequent of which was pancreatoduodenectomy. The surgical mortality rate was 5.5%.

CONCLUSION: The clinical characteristics in our study group were similar to those described in the literature. However, the number of candidates for surgical treatment was higher than that reported in other hospitals and the percentage of borderline tumors was lower. Those differences, respectively, are possibly associated with the nature of our referral center and the prolonged intervals between diagnosis and treatment that result in the loss of potential surgical patients.