BACKGROUND: We conducted a population-based study to investigate long-term survival in @entity1 diagnosed with a (suspected) @entity788 . METHODS: All @entity1 diagnosed with a @entity788 or with a pathologically unverified @entity5 of the pancreas between 1993 and 2008 in the South of the Netherlands were selected from the Netherlands Cancer Registry (NCR). Medical charts of @entity1 who were alive five years or longer since diagnosis were reviewed. RESULTS: A total of 2   564 @entity1 were included, of whom 1   365 had a @entity788 and 1   199 had a pathologically unverified @entity5 . Five-year survival of @entity1 with pathologically verified @entity420 was 1.7% (24 of 1   365 @entity1 ). Twenty-one-one of these 24 long-term survivors were among the 207 cases that underwent surgical resection as initial treatment; five-year survival after resection thus being 10.1%. Half of the long-term survivors who underwent surgical resection still eventually died of recurrent disease. Five-year survival among @entity1 with clinically suspected but microscopically unverified pancreatic @entity5 was 1.3% (16 of 1   199 @entity1 ). In 15 of these 16 long-term survivors the initial clinical diagnosis was revised: 14 had benign disease and one a @entity5 . CONCLUSIONS: Long-term survival among @entity1 with @entity788 is extremely rare. As long-term survival in clinically suspected but pathologically unverified @entity5 is very unlikely, repeated fine needle aspiration or, preferably, histological biopsy is recommended in order to establish an alternative diagnosis in @entity1 who survive longer than expected (more than 6-12 months).

Does long-term survival exist in XXXX ?

@entity1 :: ('9606', 'Species') :: ['patients'] @entity788 :: ('MESH:D010190', 'Disease') :: ['pancreatic adenocarcinoma'] @entity420 :: ('MESH:D000230', 'Disease') :: ['adenocarcinomas'] @entity5 :: ('MESH:D009369', 'Disease') :: ['pancreatic tumour', 'cancer', 'premalignant tumour', 'tumours', 'tumour']
@entity788 :: (MESH:D010190,Disease) :: ['pancreatic adenocarcinoma']
