Background: Undifferentiated carcinoma with osteoclast-like giant cells (UCOGC) of the pancreas is a very rare variant of pancreatic malignant neoplasm. It is regarded as a highly aggressive tumor with a worse prognosis than conventional pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
Case presentation: A 54-year-old male patient presented with 3-month recurrent epigastric distress. Computed tomography of the abdomen showed a large cystic mass in the distal pancreas. On macroscopic examination, the lesion had numerous multiloculated cystic cavities. Microscopically, the tumor predominantly comprised a considerable number of evenly distributed non-neoplastic osteoclast-like giant cells and a few neoplastic pleomorphic cells. Although extensive histologic sampling was conducted, a classic ductal adenocarcinoma component was not identified. The patient received no further treatment after his surgery and has been doing well with no evidence of recurrence or metastasis for >7 years.
Conclusions: Our results suggest that pure UCOGC has a significantly better prognosis and supports that pure UCOGC may represent a biologically distinct variant of pancreatic carcinoma and it should be separated from other undifferentiated pancreatic carcinomas.
Keywords: Undifferentiated carcinoma; osteoclast-like giant cells; pancreas; prognosis.
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