What is cancer of the ampulla of Vater?
What is cancer of the ampulla of Vater?
Ampullary cancer is a rare type of cancer. It occurs when cancer starts in the part of the body called the ampulla of Vater. The ampulla of Vater is a small opening where the pancreatic and bile ducts (from the liver) connect to the first part of the small intestine (the duodenum).
Is periampullary cancer curable?
The only potentially curative treatment for ampullary carcinoma is surgical resection. Complete tumor resection with negative margins (R0 resection) is a prerequisite for cure. It can be difficult to distinguish a primary ampullary carcinoma from other periampullary tumors preoperatively.
What is the importance of ampulla of Vater?
The ampulla of Vater is an important landmark halfway along the second part of the duodenum that marks the anatomical transition from foregut to midgut, and hence the point where the celiac trunk stops supplying the gut and the superior mesenteric artery takes over.
What chemo is used for Ampullary cancer?
Adjuvant therapy A retrospective study at Mayo clinic reported likely benefit with concurrent radiotherapy and 5-fluorouracil 5-FU) chemotherapy following Pancreaticoduodenectomy. However, an improvement in overall survival (median 3.4 years vs 1.6 years) was only demonstrated among patients with positive lymph nodes.
What is Stage 4 Ampullary cancer?
Stage 4: The tumour has spread from the small intestine to other organs such as the pancreas or lymph nodes.
How bad is ampullary cancer?
Ampullary cancer is a rare malignant disease, occurring in approximately 0.2% of all gastrointestinal tumors1,2,3. Its localization characteristic symptoms like jaundice and pain usually occur earlier compared with other malignant pancreatobiliary tumors like pancreatic cancer3.
Can ampullary cancer spread?
How does ampullary cancer spread? When ampullary cancer metastasizes, it usually spreads to the liver, lymph nodes, lungs, peritoneum (abdominal lining) and other organs.
Can Ampullary cancer spread to the brain?
Metastases outside the abdominal cavity are rare. Brain metastases from ampullary carcinomas are extremely rare and there are few reports about such cases.
Does Ampullary cancer come back?
Recurrence of ampullary cancer occurred within 5 years after surgery in 43.5% of patients, and the patients with very early recurrence showed significantly worse survival rate than other patients.
Can Ampullary tumors be benign?
Benign neoplasms of the ampulla of Vater are rare, representing less than 10 percent of periampullary neoplasms [1,2]. Adenomas are the most common benign lesions of the ampulla but have the potential to undergo malignant transformation to ampullary carcinomas [1,3-19].
Who discovered ampulla of Vater?
The discovery of the accessory duct of the pancreas is usually ascribed to Giovanni Domenico Santorini (1681-1737), after whom this structure is named. The papilla duodeni (ampulla ‘of Vater’, or papilla ‘of Santorini’) is named after Abraham Vater (1684-1751) or after GD Santorini.
