Review
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2021. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastroenterol. Aug 28, 2021; 27(32): 5322-5340
Published online Aug 28, 2021. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v27.i32.5322
Could the burden of pancreatic cancer originate in childhood?
Smaranda Diaconescu, Georgiana Emmanuela Gîlcă-Blanariu, Silvia Poamaneagra, Otilia Marginean, Gabriela Paduraru, Gabriela Stefanescu
Smaranda Diaconescu, Gabriela Paduraru, Department of Pediatrics, “Grigore T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi 700115, Romania
Smaranda Diaconescu, Silvia Poamaneagra, Gabriela Paduraru, Department of Pediatric Gastroenterology, St Mary Emergency Children's Hospital, Iasi 700309, Romania
Georgiana Emmanuela Gîlcă-Blanariu, Gabriela Stefanescu, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, "Grigore T. Popa" University of Medicine and Pharmacy, Iasi 700115, Romania
Georgiana Emmanuela Gîlcă-Blanariu, Gabriela Stefanescu, Department of Gastroenterology and Hepatology, “St. Spiridon” Emergency Hospital, Iasi 700111, Romania
Silvia Poamaneagra, Doctoral School, George Emil Palade University of Medicine, Pharmacy, Science and Technology, Targu Mures 540142, Romania
Otilia Marginean, Department of Pediatrics, Research Center of Disturbance of Growth and Development on Children-Belive, University of Medicine and Pharmacy “Victor Babes” Timisoara, Timisoara 300041, Romania
Otilia Marginean, First Clinic of Pediatrics, "Louis Turcanu" Emergency Childen's Hospital, Timisoara 300011, Romania
Author contributions: All authors contributed equally to the conception, design, preparation and writing of this review.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors have no conflicts of interest to declare for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Smaranda Diaconescu, MD, PhD, Professor, Department of Pediatrics, “Grigore T. Popa” University of Medicine and Pharmacy, 16 Universității str, Iasi 700115, Romania. turti23@yahoo.com
Received: January 28, 2021
Peer-review started: January 28, 2021
First decision: May 13, 2021
Revised: June 8, 2021
Accepted: July 30, 2021
Article in press: July 30, 2021
Published online: August 28, 2021
Processing time: 208 Days and 6.2 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: Pancreatic malignant tumors are rarely found during childhood, their prognosis being linked to the type of tumor and its capacity to evolve towards metastasis. Also, there are types of cancer diagnosed in pediatric patients which may present with pancreatic metastasis later, during adulthood. Various conditions, when diagnosed during childhood, may be associated with the later onset of pancreatic cancer. Also, several genetic mutations have been linked to the development of pancreatic malignancies. We discuss here the above-mentioned topics in the context of a comprehensive literature review.