Papillary mucinous tumours

Papillary mucinous tumours of the pancreas are a rather rare form of cystic tumour which predominantly affects women. They are generally benign in nature, but they may undergo malignant degeneration. Because of the absence of recognizable symptoms they are often diagnosed during clinical investigations performed for other reasons.

Symptoms
Papillary mucinous tumours are very often asymptomatic. When they reach large dimensions, however, they may cause:

• nausea or vomiting
• slight pain in the upper part of the stomach
• jaundice
• pancreatitis (episodes of sudden and violent pain due to the presence of very thick mucus in the pancreatic ducts).

Diagnosis
Blood tests are not particularly useful to make a diagnosis because tumour markers are usually normal in the presence of a papillary mucinous tumour.
It is useful to perform the following tests:

• CAT scan
• Magnetic Resonance (MRI)
• Echoendoscopy

Treatment
In the case of a papillary mucinous tumour, specialized care is required because in many cases lifetime monitoring will be necessary while in others pancreatic surgery will be necessary.