[Duodenopancreatectomy as the treatment of primary duodenal cancer].

Nine patients were operated on for primary adenocarcinoma of the duodenum at the Second Surgical Department of Helsinki University, between 1966 and 1985. They were three males and six females and were aged between 37 and 76 years. The average interval between primary symptoms and diagnosis was 3.2 months. Pancreatico-duodenectomy, the classical Whipple operation, was performed on seven cases, including one with liver resection. Four of the patients who had undergone radical surgery are alive (by Mai 1988), after six postoperative years have passed, on average (57 per cent). They are without metastases. Three patients died, among them one with liver resection one month from surgery and two with recurrent carcinoma after 1.2 and 1.8 years. Healing rates for primary duodenal carcinoma might be improved by more aggressive evaluation of symptoms in the upper gastro-intestinal tract and subsequent radical surgery.