Predictability of pancreas invasion from gastric cancer by CT

Abstract

CT is advocated as a stag ing tool in hope to avoid exploratory laparotomy in patients with gastri c carcino ma, but CT ofte n fails to predict invasion of pancreas and sple ni c hilumWe studied a se ries of 128 patients with gastric ade nocarcinoma who und erwe nt CT and surgical exploratio n, to evaluate the predictability of pancre as invas lO n by CT CT acc urately predic ted the prese rvatio n of pancreas in 93 patients, while CT failed to demonstrate the pancreas invasion in 23 patie nts Spread to pancreas was correctly predi cted in 7 patients out of 30 patients , and 5 patients lacking fat plane had no invasion, whereas 10 patients with an intact fat plane had invasion Sensitivity was 23.3 %, specificity was 93 % and overall acc uracy was approximately 78. 1 %