Clinical Analysis Of Solid Pseudopapillary Neoplasm Of The Pancreas

Background and objective: Solid pseudopapillary neoplasm of pancreas (SPN) is a rare exocrine pancreatic tumor. Despite the increasing recognition of the tumor in recent years, its clinical, imaging, pathologic features, diagnosis and therapeutic algorithm remain unclear. This study was designed to discuss the clinical, imaging and pathologic features, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of this rare disease. Methods: we collected clinical date of 9 patients with solid pseudopapillary neoplasm, including general history, medical history, therapeutic history and outcome. All the patients who were treated in the First Affiliated Hospital, Zhejiang University School of Medicine from January 2003 to December 2006. Then we reviewed the related literatures, and retrospectively analyzed the date.Results: In the 9 patients aged from 14 to 67 years, 7 were female and 2 male. The mean age was 33.1 years. Initially, 6 patients complained vague abdominal pain or discomfort, and the other 3 patients had pancreatic mass detected incidentally by type-B ultrasonic. Nothing was found by the physical examination. All the levels of laboratory tests are within the normal range, including blood glucose, blood amylase, urine amylase and the tumor markers. B-US, CT and MRI demonstrated that tumors were well encapsulated and contained some degree of cystic degeneration. The meantransverse diameter of these tumors was 5.8cm (range 4 to 11cm). All the patients received surgical intervention. Histological examinations confirmed the diagnosis of solid pseudopaillary neoplasm of the pancreas. .Follow-up for 16.8 months on average showed that one patient died of tumor recurrence at 10 months and the rest were alive. Conclusions: SPN is a latent malignancy tumor. It usually occurs in young women. Despite the unspecific of the clinical presentations, the physical examinations and the laboratory tests, imaging and fine needle aspiration method are useful to diagnosis this disease before the surgical intervention. Surgery is the mainstay of treatment, and the patients could receive a good prognosis.