Endoscopic Pancreatic Duct Stenting for Relief of Obstructive Pain in Patients With Pancreatic Cancer

Although most people with pancreatic cancer (80-85%) suffer distressing pain, it is poorly
controlled. Currently, medical management has been focused on frequent use of opioid
painkillers (narcotics) which are associated with several complications. Pain in pancreatic
cancer is mainly caused by tumor invasion to nerves near pancreatic gland, but in certain
patients with pancreatic cancer, pain is believed to be obstructive in nature and is due to
outflow obstruction of main pancreatic duct (PD) which extracts pancreatic secretions. This
kind of pain is specifically marked by pain occurring after eating. With this respect,
decompression of pancreatic duct has been associated with pain relief in people with chronic
inflammation of pancreas due to obstruction of its main duct (chronic pancreatitis).
Therefore; we think that it might be beneficial in the management of obstructive pain in
people with pancreatic cancer.

Endoscopic stenting of pancreatic duct is a way for decompression and appears to be
effective and safe palliative (pain relief) treatment for pain management in patients with
chronic pancreatitis. Besides safety, pancreatic stenting seems to be associated with a
significant decrease in amount of required opioids and analgesic drugs (and their side
effects) for pain management, and may improve patients` quality of life. There are only a
few old reports about beneficial effects of endoscopic pancreatic duct decompression for
relief of obstructive pain in pancreatic cancer. Currently, we have improved stents. Since
prior clinical practice has shown that pain improves, we plan to place stents with the
expectation that pain will improve. We hope that it will decrease need for recurrent
hospitalizations for pain control and decrease in need for medications (narcotics) and
medication side effects, and also will improve the quality of life. Specific instruments
will be applied as research tools to monitor pain score and quality of life before and after
pancreatic duct stenting in this study.

Inclusion Criteria:

- Consecutive adult patients (18-80 years of age) with cytopathologic diagnosis of
unresectable pancreatic cancer unresectable pancreatic cancer can be due 1) distant
metastasis, 2) involvement of superior mesenteric artery or celiac artery, or 3) if
the patient was unfit for surgery due to severe concomitant illness.

- Significant biliary obstruction presenting for ERCP.

- Significant obstructive-type abdominal pain despite use of opioid analgesics.
Obstructive-pain is defined as abdominal pain that is intensified after food intake
in the setting of dilated upstream pancreatic duct (>4mm in diameter).

- Ability to give informed consent.

Exclusion Criteria:

- Unable to give informed consent

- Pregnant or breastfeeding women (all women of child-bearing age will undergo urine
pregnancy testing)

- Estimated life expectancy of 4 weeks or less

- Malignant infiltration of the papilla as determined endoscopically or
radiographically

- Serum bilirubin level ≥ 2 mg/dl (to avoid a confounding variable with respect to the
impact of PD stenting on the pain severity and the quality of life; concomitant
biliary obstruction should be managed successfully before enrollment)

- Acute gastrointestinal bleeding

- Coagulopathy defined by prothrombin time < 50% of control; PTT > 50 sec, or INR >
1.5), on chronic anticoagulation, or platelet count <50,000

- Inability to tolerate sedated upper endoscopy due to cardio-pulmonary instability or
other contraindication to endoscopy

- Cirrhosis with portal hypertension, varices, and/or ascites