Morphometry and prognosis in cancer of the pancreatic head.

The histological slides of 39 cases of cancer of the pancreatic head were analysed using an interactive image analyser system. Some 14 cases were classified as periampullary, 25 as ductal pancreatic cancer. All cases had undergone radical tumor resection according to Whipple's procedure. Morphometric data, tumor size and metastatic nodal involvement were correlated to prognosis. Univariate statistical analysis showed that the classical differentiation between ductal and periampullary cancer was a weaker prognosticator than morphometric variables. In fact, multivariant statistical analysis showed that the morphometric variable irregularity was the best prognosticator (p = 0.0001). No other variable added significant prognostic information. Irregularity is a newly developed variable describing the nuclear shape corrected for roundness. We conclude that morphometry can be of essential prognostic information for the clinician in cancer of the pancreatic head.