Pancreatic cancer in Saudi patients treated at tertiary institution. Ten years retrospective study

OBJECTIVE: To describe presentation, management, and outcome, and determine prognostic factors for pancreatic cancer patients.

METHODS: A retrospective review of patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at King Abdulaziz Medical City, Riyadh, Saudi Arabia during the period from January 2000 to December 2010. Descriptive statistics were conducted on the collected data and survival was estimated using the Kaplan Meier estimate. Univariate and multiple regression analyses were carried out.

RESULTS: The medical records of 179 patients were reviewed. The patients' median age was 63 years ranging from 15-96 years, and 116 (64.8%) of them were male. The one-year survival rate was 39% and the 5-year survival was 10%. The median overall survival (OS) was 6.9 months. Age at diagnosis, grade, T stage, N stage, M stage, TNM stage group, and the combined stage group (stage III/IV versus others), site of distant metastasis, carcinoembryonic antigen (CEA), carbohydrate antigen 19-9, surgery and chemotherapy were significant predictors for OS on an univariate Cox proportional hazards regression analysis. A multiple regression model including all the significant predictors was conducted. Age at the time of diagnosis and M stage were significant variables.

CONCLUSION: Our patients present at a younger age and have better 5-year survival compared with the United States Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results data, which deserves further evaluation. Age and disease stage were identified as independent prognostic factors for survival in this patient population.