Role of Laparoscopy in the Diagnosis of Pancreatic Cancer

Abstract

The role of laparoscopy in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer was evaluated. Twenty two patients who were suspected of having pancreatic cancer, following physical examination, laboratory tests, and imaging techniques, received a laparoscopy at our clinic. The laparoscopic and histological findings were analyzed retrospectively. Eighteen patients in whom the pancreas was observed were laparoscopically diagnosed as having pancreatic cancer, and one other patient from a laparoscopic ultrasonography. Among 14 patients in whom a direct forceps biopsy of the pancreas was done, pancreatic tissue was obtained from 11 patients (78.6%) and cancer was histologically proven in only 3. Liver metastasis were observed in 11 patients, among whom an aimed biopsy to the hepatic lesion was done in 10, and adenocarcinoma was histologically proven in all of these patients. Peritonitis carcinomatosa was confirmed in 4 patients and adenocarcinorna was proven in all of the patients by histology after a punch biopsy to the lesion. Thus, histological evidence of cancer was obtained in 13 out of the 22 patients studied (59.1%). By doing laparoscopy, histological evidence of pancreatic cancer could be obtained by a less invasive procedure than lapayotomy. Conclusively, laparoscopy seems to be useful in the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer.