The spread and prognosis of carcinoma in the region of the pancreatic head.

Tumor infiltration and prognosis were studied in 73 patients who underwent surgery for carcinoma in the region of the pancreatic head, in order to evaluate the grade of malignancy of pancreatic cancer. Twenty three patients had carcinoma of the head of the pancreas, 16 had carcinoma of the intrapancreatic bile duct and 34 had carcinoma of the papilla of Vater. It was found that the prognosis in carcinoma of the head of the pancreas was not related to tumor size, but to lymph node metastasis and the pancreatic capsular or perineural invasion of the tumor. The poorer prognosis seen in carcinoma of the head of the pancreas could be attributed to the fact that lymph node metastasis and invasion of the pancreatic capsule or nerve plexus occurred much more frequently in this carcinoma than in carcinoma of the other two areas. The 5-year survival rate of the patients with carcinoma of the head of the pancreas was 12.5 per cent, this being significantly lower than that of the patients with either carcinoma of the papilla of Vater (50.0 per cent) or carcinoma of the intrapancreatic bile duct (44.4 per cent). These findings suggest that lymph node metastasis and pancreatic capsular or perineural invasion closely correlate with the prognosis of patients with pancreatic carcinoma.