Pancreatic Cancer Removal in a Cat

The Pancreas:

The pancreas is an essential organ in cats, dogs and humans. It produces the hormones insulin and glucagon to regular blood sugar; and produces digestive enzymes to digest fats and proteins in the gut. As an essential organ it cannot be removed totally, however sections of it can be removed if they are diseased.

Anatomically the pancreas is also complicated; it nestles between the stomach, liver and duodenum (the first part of the small intestine), is above the portal vein (a large vein that moves the blood from the gut to the liver) and has ducts going into the duodenum to supply the digestive enzymes to the gut. These ducts are associated with the bile ducts from the liver and cannot be blocked or disturbed.

The pancreas itself is also a delicate organ; it is easily traumatised if overhandled and when cut into. As the pancreas makes digestive enzymes, when damaged these enzymes can leak, causing inflammation in the pancreas, gut and liver as the enzymes attempt to digest the body rather than food. This is referred to as pancreatitis.

In cats this anatomy is further complicated; cats only have one shared bile duct and pancreatic duct, whereas dogs have two pancreatic ducts. This means any trauma to the pancreatic duct can prevent the emptying of the pancreas and can also cause inflammation and disease to head up the bile duct into the liver.

The case;

Noah, a 15 year old cat, presented to us with a long history of vomiting, and reduced appetite, but not diarrhoea. He had an ultrasound scan that showed a pancreatic mass wrapped around a section of his duodenum. After a discussion of the risks and possible outcomes we decided to proceed with surgery.

In surgery we noticed the mass was very close to the portal vein, wrapped around the duodenum and had the tip of the pancreas imbedded in it; luckily it was far away from the ducts and gall bladder. We managed to lift the mass away from the vital structures, took the tip of the pancreas off and then gut a section of gut away to remove the entire mass. We then needed to sew the gut back together again so food can pass and be digested.

This mass was sent off and diagnosed as a “pancreatic apocrine adenoma”. This is a more benign cancer of the pancreas, and we managed to remove the entire mass.

Noah did have some complications after surgery, he developed pancreatitis, which is common with any surgery to the pancreas, and needed to stay on fluid therapy (a drip) and pain relief until he healed and recovered. His surgery in the end was successful with the entire tumour removed, and the gut healing together and passing food again normally.

While we don’t get to perform complicated surgeries like a pancreatic cancer removal daily, we have the equipment and expertise to perform these surgeries at VetHQ. We are open and communicative about the risks of these procedures and will walk you through the cost/benefit of these kinds of surgeries to help you come to a decision if it is right for you and your loved one. We are also very open in the discussion of when to refer for specialist care as some of these cases may benefit from.