Ridder G J, Klempnauer J
Clinic for Abdominal and Transplantation Surgery, Hannover Medical School, Germany.
Scand J Gastroenterol. 1995 Dec;30(12):1216-20. doi: 10.3109/00365529509101634.
Back pain is a frequent and often ominous clinical sign in patients with ductal pancreatic cancer.
From 1971 to 1993 a pancreatic carcinoma could be resected in 192 patients, whereas 261 patients underwent either probatory laparotomy alone or palliative bypass procedures. In a retrospective study including uni- and multi-variate survival analysis we have determined the impact of preoperative back pain on both resectability and long-term prognosis after resection.
Among the presenting symptoms of patients with ductal pancreatic cancer back pain was a predictive sign of irresectability. In the presence of preoperative back pain the long-term prognosis after resection of the tumour was also significantly impaired. In a multivariate analysis it could be demonstrated that the prognostic impact of back pain was as strong as the influence of residual tumour, tumour grading, and tumour size.
Back pain often indicates irresectability of ductal pancreatic carcinoma and also impairs the long-term prognosis even after curative resection.
