Idiopathic Acute Recurrent Pancreatitis - A paraneoplastic Syndrome? | Insight Medical Publishing

A Forty-seven-year-old male patient presented for evaluation of recurrent episodes of acute pancreatitis. Imaging studies including EUS and laboratory evaluation did not reveal any clear etiology. The patient was felt to have idiopathic acute recurrent pancreatitis. A few months later he was diagnosed with metastatic non-small cell lung cancer with pancreatic metastases. While it is possible that the initial presentation could have been due to metastatic cancer, this was felt to be unlikely given the negative workup. The possibility of acute pancreatitis as a para-neoplastic syndrome was considered. A detailed discussion and literature review follows. Received February