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Primary pancreatic small cell carcinoma (SCC) is rare, with just over 30 cases reported in the literature. Only 7 of these patients underwent surgical resection with a median survival of 6 months. Prognosis of SCC is therefore considered to be poor, and the role of adjuvant therapy is uncertain. Here we report two institutions’ experience with resectable pancreatic SCC. Six patients with pancreatic SCC treated at the Johns Hopkins Hospital (4 patients) and the Mayo Clinic (2 patients) were identified from prospectively collected pancreatic cancer databases and re-reviewed by pathology. All six patients underwent a pancreaticoduodenectomy. Clinicopathologic data were analyzed, and the literature on pancreatic SCC was reviewed. Median age at diagnosis was 50 years (range 27-60). All six tumors arose in the head of the pancreas. Median tumor size was 3 cm, and all cases had positive lymph nodes except for one patient who only had five nodes sampled. There were no perioperative deaths and three patients had at least one postoperative complication. All six patients received adjuvant therapy, five of whom were given combined modality treatment with radiation, cisplatin, and etoposide. Median survival was 20 months with a range of 9-173 months. The patient who lived for 9 months received chemotherapy only, while the patient who lived for 173 months was given chemoradiation with cisplatin and etoposide and represents the longest reported survival time from pancreatic SCC to date. Pancreatic SCC is an extremely rare form of cancer with a poor prognosis. Patients in this surgical series showed favorable survival rates when compared to prior reports of both resected and unresectable SCC. Cisplatin and etoposide appears to be the preferred chemotherapy regimen, although its efficacy remains uncertain, as does the role of combined modality treatment with radiation.

Devi Mukkai Krishnamurty,1 Atoosa Rabiee,2 Sanjay B Jagannath,1 Dana K Andersen2Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine; 1Department of Medicine; 2Department of Surgery, Johns Hopkins Hospital, Baltimore, MD, USA; 2Johns Hopkins University School of Medicine, Johns Hopkins Bayview Medical Center, Baltimore, MD, USAAbstract: Pancreatic enzyme supplements (PES) are used in chronic pancreatitis (CP) for correction of pancreatic exocrine insufficiency (PEI) as well as pain and malnutrition. The use of porcine pancreatic enzymes for the correction of exocrine insufficiency is governed by the pathophysiology of the disease as well as pharmacologic properties of PES. Variability in bioequivalence of PES has been noted on in vitro and in vivo testing and has been attributed to the differences in enteric coating and the degree of micro-encapsulation. As a step towards standardizing pancreatic enzyme preparations, the Food and Drug Administration now requires the manufacturers of PES to obtain approval of marketed formulations by April 2010. In patients with treatment failure, apart from evaluating drug and dietary interactions and compliance, physicians should keep in mind that patients may benefit from switching to a different formulation. The choice of PES (enteric coated versus non-enteric coated) and the need for acid suppression should be individualized. There is no current standard test for evaluating adequacy of therapy in CP patients and studies have shown that optimization of therapy based on symptoms may be inadequate. Goals of therapy based on overall patient presentation and specific laboratory tests rather than mere correction of steatorrhea are needed.Keywords: pancreatic exocrine insufficiency, chronic pancreatitis, pancreatic enzyme supplement