Clinical and Biological Data in Patients with Pancreatic Cancer vs. Chronic Pancreatitis—A Single Center Comparative Analysis

Abstract

Introduction: In some patients with chronic pancreatitis, the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer can be missed. The objective of the study was to identify clinical and paraclinical data with statistical significance in the differential diagnosis between chronic pancreatitis and pancreatic cancer. Materials and Methods: We conducted a retrospective, observational study on a cohort of 120 patients hospitalized over 3 years. The patients were equally distributed in two groups: group A, with 60 patients with pancreatic cancer, and group B, with 60 patients with chronic pancreatitis. The statistical analysis was carried out by using the R program. Results. The comparative analysis of pancreatic cancer vs. chronic pancreatitis revealed a stronger link between pancreatic cancer, female gender (p = 0.001) and age over 60 years (p < 0.001). Patients with pancreatic cancer had higher serum values of aspartate aminotransferase (p 0.005), alanine aminotransferase (p 0.006), total bilirubin (p < 0.001), direct bilirubin (p < 0.001), alkaline phosphatase (p 0.030), C-reactive protein (p = 0.049) and uric acid (p 0.001), while patients with chronic pancreatitis presented slightly higher values of amylase (p 0.020) and lipase (p 0.029). Conclusions: Female gender, advanced age, elevated aminotransferases, cholestasis markers and uric acid were associated with a higher probability of pancreatic cancer.