Chronic pancreatitis: a debut or a risk factor for pancreatic cancer?

K.A. Krasnov^1,2, V.V. Anishchenko^3,4, S.V. Pugachev¹, A.O. Krasnov¹, N.V. Krasnova^1,2, E.Yu. Plotnikova² 

¹Kemerovo Clinical Emergency Hospital, Kemerovo

²Kemerovo State Medical University, Kemerovo

³Novosibirsk State Medical University, Novosibirsk

⁴AVICENNA Medical Center, Novosibirsk 

Chronic pancreatitis (CP) is a fibroinflammatory disease of the exocrine pancreas with various etiologies and a wide range of clinical manifestations: from asymptomatic course to debilitating chronic pain, and exocrine and endocrine insufficiency. CP is a quite common disease (manifestation according to various data varies from 7–14 to 120–143 cases per 100 thousand population), frequently requiring invasive methods of diagnosis and treatment, and surgical interventions. CP is also a known risk factor for pancreatic cancer, which can be considered in the context of early diagnosis and improvement of the treatment results of the latter. Long-term inflammation increases cellular metabolism and stellate cell proliferation, and in CP it creates differentiation disorders of pancreatic tissues, which contribute to carcinogenesis. Acute pancreatitis may be the earliest clinical manifestation of pancreatic cancer. Ho wever, the association between acute pancreatitis and the risk of pancreatic cancer remains unclear due to inconsistent and contradictory research results. This article highlights the modern options for diagnosis and treatment of both diseases, provides literature data on their association, discusses methods of differential diagnosis and possible simultaneous treatment.

Keywords: chronic pancreatitis, acute pancreatitis, pancreatic cancer, risk factors, genetic markers, surgical treatment.

For citation: Krasnov K.A., Anishchenko V.V., Pugachev S.V. et al. Chronic pancreatitis: a debut or a risk factor for pancreatic cancer? RMJ. 2022;8:23–29.