Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
. 2021 Oct:4:6.
doi: 10.21037/apc-21-4. Epub 2021 Oct 30.

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma in liver transplant recipients: a case series

Muhammad A Rauf  1 , Ioannis A Ziogas  1 , Julia M Sealock  2   3 , Lea K Davis  2   3 , Manhal Izzy  4 , Sophoclis P Alexopoulos  1 , Lea K Matsuoka  1
Affiliations

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma in liver transplant recipients: a case series

Muhammad A Rauf et al. Ann Pancreat Cancer. 2021 Oct.

Abstract

Background: Malignancy is one of the known leading causes of death among long-term liver transplantation (LT) survivors. Pancreatic cancer has an incidence of 7.6/100,000 in North America and constitutes a diagnostic challenge post-LT.

Methods: This is a single-center, retrospective review of the electronic health records (EHRs) of LT recipients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma (1990-2019). The prevalence of pancreatic adenocarcinoma in our institutional non-LT population was assessed using an institutional de-identified database (Synthetic Derivative).

Results: Six out of 2,232 (0.27%) LT recipients were diagnosed with pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Median age at diagnosis was 66.0 years (IQR, 57.8-71.8 years). Median time from LT to pancreatic adenocarcinoma diagnosis was 8.9 years (IQR, 4.7-16.2 years), the median size on imaging was 3.2 cm (IQR, 3.1-4.7 cm), and all tumors were located on the head of the pancreas. Three patients underwent surgical resection (one with adjuvant chemotherapy), two underwent palliative care, and one palliative chemotherapy with gemcitabine and abraxane. Over a median follow-up of 220.5 days (IQR, 144.8-399.5 days), all six patients died due to disease progression (100%). Pancreatic adenocarcinoma was diagnosed in 5,033 out of 2,484,772 (0.20%) individuals in the Synthetic Derivative.

Conclusions: Our findings identified an increased incidence of pancreatic adenocarcinoma following LT compared to the general population.

Keywords: Liver transplantation (LT); case series; immunosuppression; malignancy; pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: All authors have completed the ICMJE uniform disclosure form (available at https://dx.doi.org/10.21037/apc-21-4). The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare.

References

    1. Starzl TE, Marchioro TL, Vonkaulla KN, et al. Homotransplantation of the liver in humans. Surg Gynecol Obstet 1963;117:659–76. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Rana A, Godfrey EL. Outcomes in Solid-Organ Transplantation: Success and Stagnation. Tex Heart Inst J 2019;46:75–6. - PMC - PubMed
    1. Lim KB, Schiano TD. Long-term outcome after liver transplantation. Mt Sinai J Med 2012;79:169–89. - PubMed
    1. Rana A, Ackah RL, Webb GJ, et al. No Gains in Long-term Survival After Liver Transplantation Over the Past Three Decades. Ann Surg 2019;269:20–7. - PubMed
    1. Ester C, Gheorghe L, Becheanu G, et al. Early detection of advanced pancreatic cancer after DAA-induced virological cure in a liver transplant recipient with hepatitis C recurrence. J Gastrointestin Liver Dis 2018;27:104–5. - PubMed