Zachariah H Foda, MD, PhD; CGA-IGC Communications Committee
In Episode 3 of the 2023 CGA-IGC podcast series, hosted by Julie Yang, MD, Gastroenterologist from Icann School of Medicine at Mount Sinai, Toni T. Seppälä, MD, PhD, GI surgeon and Professor of Cancer Research at Tampere University, discusses pancreatic and biliary tract cancers in Lynch syndrome.
The discussion is framed around the results from a retrospective analysis published this year, “Clinical characteristics of pancreatic and biliary tract cancers in Lynch syndrome: A retrospective analysis from the Finnish National Lynch Syndrome Research Registry,” which can be found here.
“The cancer spectrum in Lynch has evolved over time, as people are living longer who survive colorectal or endometrial cancer, I definitely think we see a drift in diagnosing these cancers more”- Professor Toni T. Seppälä, Tampere University
Professor Seppälä discusses the multicenter retrospective study looking at the clinical features of Lynch syndrome individuals diagnosed with pancreatic or biliary cancer over a period of 38 years. The registry includes 1800 individuals from 400 families, and the authors identified 39 patients with pancreatic or biliary tract cancer.
This study found that survival of these patients was improved over sporadic pancreatic or biliary tract cancer, although overall, these diseases remain deadly. Interestingly, for 70% of patients, the pancreatic or biliary cancer was a second cancer for them. This finding might reflect the underlying biology of cancer development, and Professor Seppälä posits a very interesting relationship between the immune system and common cancers, such as colorectal or endometrial, as sentinel events.
Listen to the podcast here
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If you enjoyed this podcast, you might like other episodes in the CGA-IGC Podcast Series (Season 6) and the Journal Club podcast series (Seasons 3, 4 &5) presented by the CGA-IGC Education Committee.
Or explore our Expert Approach to Hereditary Gastrointestinal Cancers podcast series (Seasons 1 and 2).
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