Talk to the Veterans Crisis Line now
U.S. flag
An official website of the United States government

VA Health Systems Research

Go to the VA ORD website
Go to the QUERI website

HSR&D Citation Abstract

Search | Search by Center | Search by Source | Keywords in Title

New diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis: risk of missing an underlying pancreatic cancer.

Munigala S, Kanwal F, Xian H, Agarwal B. New diagnosis of chronic pancreatitis: risk of missing an underlying pancreatic cancer. The American journal of gastroenterology. 2014 Nov 1; 109(11):1824-30.

Dimensions for VA is a web-based tool available to VA staff that enables detailed searches of published research and research projects.

If you have VA-Intranet access, click here for more information vaww.hsrd.research.va.gov/dimensions/

VA staff not currently on the VA network can access Dimensions by registering for an account using their VA email address.
   Search Dimensions for VA for this citation
* Don't have VA-internal network access or a VA email address? Try searching the free-to-the-public version of Dimensions



Abstract:

OBJECTIVES: Patients with pancreatic cancer (PaCa) sometimes present with symptoms suggestive of chronic pancreatitis (CP). We evaluated the prevalence of undiagnosed PaCa in patients with new CP diagnosis. METHODS: This is a retrospective study with data from Veterans Health Administration national medical care data sets from fiscal year 1998-2007. A 3-year washout period was used to identify patients with preexisting PaCa and preexisting CP diagnosis. RESULTS: Among 471,992 veterans included, 917 (0.19%) had PaCa, 2,557 (0.54%) had a preexisting CP, and 2,175 (0.46%) had a new diagnosis of CP. PaCa was diagnosed = 2 years following CP diagnosis in 44 patients, comprising 4.80% of patients with PaCa. Following a new diagnosis of CP, the risk of PaCa diagnosis was most marked in the first year (incidence 18.04 per 1,000 person-years (py), relative risk (RR) 63.43) and became similar to risk in patients with preexisting CP in the third year. The first-year incidence of PaCa was 7.33/1,000 py in the fifth decade and reached 36.91/1,000 py after seventh decade of life. Time to PaCa diagnosis following a CP diagnosis was = 60 days in 14 patients, 3-12 months in 25 patients, and 13-24 months in 5 patients. CONCLUSIONS: Approximately 5% of patients with PaCa are initially misdiagnosed as CP, and in two-thirds of these patients the cancer diagnosis is delayed by > 2 months. PaCa should reliably be excluded before making a new CP diagnosis in patients who are > 40 years old, especially in those without heavy smoking or alcohol history.





Questions about the HSR website? Email the Web Team

Any health information on this website is strictly for informational purposes and is not intended as medical advice. It should not be used to diagnose or treat any condition.