Age distribution patterns of patients with conventional ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas. A single-institution study of 580 cases re-evaluated using current histopathological diagnostic criteria

There are a few studies concerning epidemiology of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) in the Polish population. Analysis of age distribution patterns of patients with different types of cancer may be useful for studying their specific biology. In the present study we aimed to describe age distribution patterns of 580 patients with PDAC diagnosed in one centre during a 25-year period. All the histopathological diagnoses were re-reviewed using current histopathological diagnostic criteria. Age distributions of selected subpopulations of patients (defined based on gender, potential tumour resectability and type of the surgery) were compared using mean values, medians, age frequency density plots and logarithmic plots of age-specific frequencies.
The mean and median values of patients’ age were 60.8 y and 61.0 y, respectively. Females were approximately 2 y older than males at the time of PDAC diagnosis. Females with non-resectable PDAC were approximately 2 y older than females with resectable tumours. Mean age values of males with non-resectable and resectable PDAC were similar. Patients treated with pancreaticoduodenectomy were approximately 2 y older than patients undergoing other types of resections. Age distribution density plots showed that some subgroups of patients studied were somewhat heterogeneous and might include several yet poorly recognized clinico-pathological entities. Logarithmic plots of age-specific frequencies showed that PDAC epidemiology is in concordance with a multistage theory of carcinogenesis.
PDAC is an age-dependent cancer. Single-institutional pathology-oriented cancer epidemiological databases may add some information to population-based cancer registries.