The present case of synchronous double primary cancer of pancreas and gastric was confirmed by postoperative pathological and immunohistochemical analyses. The reason why we reported this case is that the incidence of synchronous gastric adenocarcinoma complicated with PACC is rare, especially the incidence of PACC alone is relatively low, accounting for approximately 1%-2% of exocrine pancreatic neoplasms [2].
Previous studies have shown an incidence of gastric cancer with a synchronous second primary cancer of 1.0–5.0% [3–5]. Gastric carcinoma associated with pancreatic carcinoma accounts for 5% of all cases of gastric carcinoma associated with carcinoma of other organs, ranking forth [3]. Correspondingly, the most common synchronous tumor associated with pancreatic cancer was gastric cancer [6]. The overall survival of pancreatic cancer patients with stomach cancer (33.9 months) was significantly better than that of patients with only pancreatic cancer (17.0 months) [6]. This may be due to the fact that patients with pancreatic cancer are at an early stage when synchronous double cancers are diagnosed.
After reviewing lots of literatures on simultaneous pancreatic and gastric cancers at home and abroad, we found out synchronous double tumors involving the two organs are rare, among which PACC is even rarer. Details of reported cases are shown in Table 1 [7–20], including our case. The average age at diagnosis is 67 years (range 42–77 years), and men are twice as likely to be diagnosed with synchronous pancreatic and gastric cancer than women. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common pancreatic tumor in these cases. PACC accounts for 11.1% (2/17) among the 17 synchronous double cancer cases, while PDAC accounts for 70.6% (12/17). The remaining 3 cases did not mention the pathological type. The most common tumor location is the head of the pancreas, accounting for 66.7% of cases (10/15). Two cases of tumors in the body of the pancreas and three cases of tumors located in the tail of the pancreas have been described. In two cases, the tumor location was not reported. Eleven patients (64.7%) underwent surgery for the double tumors. All of these cases were pathologically confirmed by postoperative specimen and none were diagnosed before surgery, which was consistent with our case. That these patients were able to undergo curative resection may indicate that these patients are diagnosed at earlier stages and are likely to have better prognoses than patients with only pancreatic cancer. This also highlights that synchronous double tumors do exist, and a second tumor should not necessarily be considered metastasis from another organ, which could lead to misdiagnosis and the abandonment of surgical resection.
Table 1
Reported cases of synchronous gastric and pancreatic tumors.
Author, year
|
Age
|
Gend-er
|
Gastric tumor
location
|
Gastric histology
|
Pancreatic tumor location
|
Pancreatic histology
|
Treatment
|
Eriguchi N et al. (2000)[7]
|
76
|
male
|
upper gastric angle
|
Moderately differentiated tubular adenocarcinoma
|
Not mentioned
|
Well to moderately differentiated tubular adenocarcinoma
|
surgically treated
|
Kubota E et al. (2009)[8]
|
67
|
male
|
Not mentioned
|
Moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma
|
Not mentioned
|
Absence of pancreatic histology
|
Chemotherapy:S-1, paclitaxel and lentinan
|
Meng L et al. (2010)[9]
|
42
|
male
|
gastric antrum
|
gastric GIST
|
pancreatic head
|
pancreatic GIST
|
surgically treated
|
SHEN Z.L et al.
(2010)[10]
|
72
|
female
|
major gastric curvature
|
gastric GIST
|
the head of the pancreas
|
poorly differentiated PDAC; malignant fibrous histiocytoma
|
surgically treated
|
Muroni M et al.
(2010)[11]
|
73
|
None
|
gastric antrum and pyloric portion
|
moderately differentiated adenocarcinoma
|
uncinate portion of the pancreas
|
poorly differentiated PDAC
|
surgically treated
|
Dasanu CA et al.
(2011)[12]
|
75
|
male
|
Not mentioned
|
GIST
|
the head of the pancreas
|
moderately to poorly differentiated carcinoma
|
surgically treated
|
Kourie HR et al. case 1
(2012) [13]
|
56
|
male
|
anterior part of the antrum
|
Poorly differentiated adenocarcinoma with independent mucus-secreting cells
|
the head of the pancreas
|
Necrotic ductal adenocarcinoma
|
Chemotherapy: Folfirinox
|
Kourie HR et al. case 2
(2012)[13]
|
62
|
male
|
gastric wall of the greater curvature
|
Gastric adenocarcinoma with mucinous component
|
tail of the pancreas
|
Tubular adenocarcinoma (ck7+; ck20-; ck19+)
|
Chemotherapy: Folfirinox
|
Ohtsubo K et al.
(2013)[14]
|
77
|
male
|
in the middle of stomach
|
Adenocarcinoma stage IB, T2bN0M0
|
pancreatic head
|
Adenocarcinoma
stage IIA, T3N0M0
|
treated with chemotherapy:S-1
|
Baba H et al. (2015)[15]
|
70
|
male
|
The fundal region and greater curvature of the stomach
|
low grade gastric calcified stromal tumor (GIST)
|
the head of the pancreas
|
adenocarcinoma
|
surgically treated
|
Ghothim M et al.
case 1 (2015) [16]
|
73
|
male
|
The antrum of the stomach
|
adenocarcinoma (pT1N1M0 stage IB, G2)
|
the head of the pancreas
|
ductal pancreatic cancer. (pT2N1M0, stage IIB, G3)
|
surgically treated; gemcitabine in six cycles
|
Ghothim M et al.
case 3 (2015) [16]
|
74
|
male
|
The antrum of the stomach
|
gastric adenocarcinoma diffuse type (pT2bN2M0, G3)
|
pancreatic head
|
papillary mucinous carcinoma (pT2N0M0, stage IB, G1)
|
Surgically treated;
Radiotherapy and chemotherapy
|
Fiore M et al. case 1(2015)[17]
|
63
|
male
|
Not mentioned
|
gastric GIST (T2N0)
|
pancreatic head
|
adenocarcinoma (T2N0)
|
surgically treated
|
Santos-Fernández J
et al. (2015)[18]
|
64
|
female
|
prepiloric antral ulcer
|
well differentiated gastric adenocarcinoma (T1N0M0)
|
pancreatic tail
|
pancreatic adenocarcinoma (T3N1M1)
|
Not mentioned
|
Arabadzhie-va E et al. (2016)[19]
|
60
|
female
|
in the pyloric area
|
gastric GIST
|
pancreatic body
|
pancreatic neuroendocrine tumor
|
surgically treated
|
Yonenaga Y et al. (2016)[20]
|
63
|
male
|
antrum of the stomach
|
ACC of gastric
|
the body of the pancreas
|
ACC of pancreas
|
Chemotherapy
|
Our case
(2021)
|
69
|
male
|
antrum of the stomach
|
gastric adenocarcinoma
|
the tail of the pancreas
|
ACC of pancreas
|
surgically treated;Chemotherapy
|
GIST = Gastrointestinal Stromal Tumors; PDAC = Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma; ACC = acinar cell carcinoma. |
The clinical manifestations of PACC are related to the location and size of the tumor. Unlike patients with PDAC, patients with PACC present with nonspecific symptoms, including abdominal discomfort, weight loss, weakness, nausea, vomiting, melena, and diarrhea [21]. Further, clinical symptoms common in PDAC, such as painless obstructive jaundice, are uncommon in PACC [22].
Endoscopic ultrasonography (EUS) and imaging findings such as CT and magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) are helpful to assist with achieving a correct preoperative diagnosis for double cancers [23]. CT is a valuable tool for the accurate preoperative evaluation of the local extent of gastric cancer and EUS can be used for histopathological confirmation [24]. PACC is typically completely solid when small and contains cystic or necrotic areas when large and generally lacks the dilatation of the biliary or pancreatic duct on CT [25]. However, it is difficult to diagnose PACC on the basis of radiological findings alone. EUS-guided fine-needle aspiration (EUS-FNA) has a very high sensitivity (> 85%) and specificity (> 95%) for diagnosis of malignancy in a solid pancreatic mass compared to cross-sectional imaging (CT/MRI) [26]. Whereas the position of the pancreas is relatively deep and it is also difficult to take a EUS-FNA. An experienced radiologist can give a preliminary imaging diagnosis of PDAC, which tends to be hypovascular, suggesting hypoechoic on imaging [27]. However, it is difficult to distinguish whether the primary tumor has metastasized to other organs in imaging, because tumors can also metastasize through the hematogenous or the lymphatic pathway in addition to direct invasion. If necessary, preoperative pathology must be performed to opt for the correct surgical approach. The present case of abdominal CT revealed a 41mm heterogenous mass with a clear boundary in the tail of the pancreas, which is suggestive.
The prevalence of pancreatic metastasis of gastric cancer is extremely rare. There were only 12 cases of isolated pancreatic metastasis in gastric cancer in the previous literature [28]. Correspondingly, metastatic gastric tumor secondary to pancreatic carcinoma is an unusual clinical event. There were only 7 cases of gastric metastasis of pancreatic cancer in the previous literature [29–35]. All of these cases, the histopathology and immunohistochemical of primary cancer and metastatic cancer are consistent. This is completely different from our case. In terms of histopathology, the two resected specimens were different, showing that adenocarcinoma in the stomach and acinar cell carcinoma in the pancreas. Moreover, immunohistochemical studies showed differences in staining at the two sites. Finally, we concluded that both of them were primary tumors, not metastatic tumors.
PACC is associated with a better prognosis than PDAC but a worse prognosis than pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors [36]. Metastatic PACCs are generally not curable and are treated with systemic chemotherapy [36]. The treatment regimens have not yet been standardized. Most of the treatment regimens used are the same as those used for PDAC or colorectal cancer [36]. Simultaneous removal of double primary carcinomas should be attempted, radiotherapy and chemotherapy should also be considered for patients who need adjuvant treatment decided by both disease stage [37]. If it is necessary to adjuvant treatment, try to choose an antineoplastic therapy that takes both into account. In our case, whether gastric adenocarcinoma or PACC, the optimal chemotherapy regimens are SOX.
Above, we have ruled out the possibility of gastric and pancreatic malignant tumors metastasizing to each other. But is there a pathological type similar to acinar cell carcinoma (ACC) in gastric? Reviewing literatures of databases, we found that ACC could arise in the gastric as a polypoid submucosal tumor in the routine diagnostic field of gastric endoscopy [38]. By summarizing the six case reports published so far [38–41], we concluded that the diagnosis and treatment of ACC of gastric are basically consistent with that of PACC. On the one hand, immunohistochemical staining is the same as PACC showing strong positive reactions for antitrypsin and antichymotrypsin [42]. On the other hand, the main treatment method is surgery to prolong overall survival. The pathology of gastric cancer in our case was not this special type, it was a common gastric adenocarcinoma.