Clinicopathological study on hematogenous metastasis of pancreatic cancer.

Out of 272 pancreatic cancer patients, 94 with hematogenous metastasis were clinicopathologically analyzed. The incidence of hematogenous metastases on laparotomy was 31.3 per cent in the liver, 1.8 per cent in the lung, 1.1 per cent in the adrenal gland and 0.4 per cent in the navel, respectively. The incidence of liver metastasis, in 22.9 per cent of the patients with carcinoma of the head of the pancreas and in 47.3 per cent of those of the body and tail of the pancreas, was higher than that of carcinomas of the other digestive organs. In autopsy findings, early metastases to the liver, lung, cerebellum and ovarium were evident. A higher rate of liver metastasis with lymph node involvement in the early stage of the disease was peculiar to cases of pancreatic cancer.