An autopsy case of pancreatic duct cell carcinoma associated with ossification.

A case of pancreatic duct cell carcinoma with ossification was reported. A 71-year-old female died of pancreas carcinoma with liver and diffuse lymph node metastasis. Computed tomography (CT) revealed a punctate calcification of the body of the pancreas. At autopsy, the carcinoma occupied almost all of the pancreas, and histological examination revealed a moderately to well-differentiated adenocarcinoma with mucin production in the glands. The whole of the pancreas was examined microscopically by multiple-step sections, and mature ossification was found in the body, corresponding to its CT localization. Around the ossification were found cancer cells with massive mucin in the cytoplasm, capillary proliferation, scattered necrosis and mesenchymal cells, which were thought to be fibroblasts. But neither cartilage nor calcification was found. The pathogenesis of ossification was believed to be associated with metaplastic changes of mesenchymal cells. This is the fourth case of pancreatic carcinoma with ossification, and the second case of pancreatic duct cell carcinoma with mature bone formation to have been reported.