Abstract
Purpose
Pancreatic cancer is a major global health problem, it’s a highly aggressive and often has a poor prognosis. The aim of this work is to carry out a retrospective epidemiological study on pancreatic cancer in a university hospital in a North African country.
Methods
This is a monocentric, descriptive and analytical retrospective cohort study carried out in the Gastroenterology department of the Mohammed VI University Hospital of Oujda, Morocco, between January 2018 and December 2022. Analysis were performed using IBM SPSS Version 21.0
Results
During this period, 197 cases of pancreatic cancers were collected, the median age was 64.6 years, the majority of patients (90.9%) were over 50 year’s old. and there was no significant difference in gender distribution. Among the patients, several risk factors were prevalent, including chronic tobacco smoking (22.8%), alcohol consumption (12.7%), diabetes (38.1%), obesity (7.6%), and a family history of pancreatic cancer (3%). The most common symptoms at presentation were abdominal pain and obstructive jaundice. Imaging revealed that the majority of cases were located in the head of the pancreas (80.7%). Only 19.8% of the cancers were diagnosed at a resectable stage and adenocarcinoma was the predominant histological type (96.4%). Patients with advanced cancer stages showed higher levels of CA 19-9 and hypoalbuminemia.
Conclusion
Our study aligns with previous research, indicating an increased incidence of pancreatic cancer among elderly individuals, particularly those with several risk factors such as chronic tobacco smoking, alcohol consumption, diabetes. A small proportion of cancer cases are deemed resectable at the time of diagnosis.
Similar content being viewed by others
References
Abbassi F, El Fadli M, Essadi I, Belbaraka R (2022) P-288 Pancreatic cancer: Epidemiological factors, clinical characteristics, and therapeutic management: data of an oncology center in southern Morocco. Ann Oncol 33:S349. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.annonc.2022.04.377
Aier I, Semwal R, Sharma A, Varadwaj PK (2019) A systematic assessment of statistics, risk factors, and underlying features involved in pancreatic cancer. Cancer Epidemiol 58:104–110. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canep.2018.12.001
Alegbeleye BJ, Afolabi AOO, Alegbeleye BJ (2019) Clinicopathologic pattern and outcome of management of pancreatic carcinoma in Ibadan, Nigeria. Sudan J Med Sci. https://doi.org/10.18502/sjms.v14i4.5898
American Cancer Society (2023) Cancer facts and figures 2023. American Cancer Society, Atlanta
Ballehaninna UK, Chamberlain RS (2012) The clinical utility of serum CA 19–9 in the diagnosis, prognosis and management of pancreatic adenocarcinoma: an evidence based appraisal”. J Gastrointest Oncol 3(2):88–100
Bazeed AY, Day CM, Garg S (2022) Pancreatic cancer: challenges and opportunities in locoregional therapies. Cancers 14(17):4257. https://doi.org/10.3390/cancers14174257
Bazine A et al (2018) Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma in a Moroccan population: analysis of six years experience. Int Surg J 5(5):1628. https://doi.org/10.18203/2349-2902.isj20181389
Eddfair M et al (2022) Correlations of demographical and clinicopathological features with patient outcome of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: a retrospective study (2010–2018) from a Libyan Cohort. J Cancer Res Ther. https://doi.org/10.4103/jcrt.jcrt_1778_21
Haimer A, Habib F, Soulaymani A, Mokhtari A, Hami H (2018) Pancreatic cancer in Morocco: A retrospective review. Ann Oncol 29:v110–v111. https://doi.org/10.1093/annonc/mdy151.036
Hu J-X et al (2021) Pancreatic cancer: a review of epidemiology, trend, and risk factors. World J Gastroenterol 27(27):4298–4321. https://doi.org/10.3748/wjg.v27.i27.4298
Ilic I, Ilic M (2022) International patterns in incidence and mortality trends of pancreatic cancer in the last three decades: a joinpoint regression analysis. World J Gastroenterol 28(32):4698–4715. https://doi.org/10.3748/wjg.v28.i32.4698
Midha S, Chawla S, Garg PK (2016) Modifiable and non-modifiable risk factors for pancreatic cancer: a review. Cancer Lett 381(1):269–277. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.canlet.2016.07.022
Molina-Montes E et al (2020) Pancreatic cancer risk in relation to lifetime smoking patterns, tobacco type, and dose-response relationships. Cancer Epidemiol Biomarkers Prev 29(5):1009–1018. https://doi.org/10.1158/1055-9965.EPI-19-1027
Nassereldine H, Awada H, Hajj Ali A, Zeineddine M, Sater ZA, Shaib Y (2022) Pancreatic cancer in the MENA region, a bibliometric review. Ecancermedicalscience. https://doi.org/10.3332/ecancer.2022.1380
Rahib L, Smith BD, Aizenberg R, Rosenzweig AB, Fleshman JM, Matrisian LM (2014) Projecting cancer incidence and deaths to 2030: the unexpected burden of thyroid, liver, and pancreas cancers in the United States. Cancer Res 74(11):2913–2921. https://doi.org/10.1158/0008-5472.CAN-14-0155
Sellam F, Harir N, Khaled MB, Mrabent NM, Salah R, Diaf M (2015) Delayed diagnosis of pancreatic cancer reported as more common in a population of North African young adults. J Gastrointest Oncol 6(5):505
Sung H et al (2021) Global cancer statistics 2020: GLOBOCAN estimates of incidence and mortality worldwide for 36 cancers in 185 countries. CA Cancer J Clin 71(3):209–249. https://doi.org/10.3322/caac.21660
Tingstedt B, Weitkämper C, Andersson R (2011) Early onset pancreatic cancer: a controlled trial. Ann Gastroenterol 24:206
Virgilsen LF, Rasmussen LA, Vedsted P, Jensen H (2022) Diagnosing pancreatic cancer in general practice: a cross-sectional study on associations between suspicion of cancer, urgent referral and time to diagnosis. Scand J Prim Health Care 40(1):78–86. https://doi.org/10.1080/02813432.2022.2036491
Xu S-S et al (2020) Haemoglobin, albumin, lymphocyte and platelet predicts postoperative survival in pancreatic cancer. World J Gastroenterol 26(8):828–838. https://doi.org/10.3748/wjg.v26.i8.828
Funding
Not applicable.
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Contributions
Writing and analysis: AF, correction: KG, data source: IZ, BM, ZA, JR, KH.
Corresponding author
Ethics declarations
Conflict of interest
The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest.
Ethical approval
This article does not contain any studies with human participants or animals performed by any of the authors.
Additional information
Publisher's Note
Springer Nature remains neutral with regard to jurisdictional claims in published maps and institutional affiliations.
Rights and permissions
Springer Nature or its licensor (e.g. a society or other partner) holds exclusive rights to this article under a publishing agreement with the author(s) or other rightsholder(s); author self-archiving of the accepted manuscript version of this article is solely governed by the terms of such publishing agreement and applicable law.
About this article
Cite this article
Amri, F., Koulali, H., Jabi, R. et al. Pancreatic cancer: experience from an emerging country in North Africa. J Cancer Res Clin Oncol 149, 14297–14302 (2023). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-023-05245-5
Received:
Accepted:
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/s00432-023-05245-5