An elderly female patient was admitted to the hospital for "abdominal pain accompanied by jaundice of the skin and sclera for 2 weeks." Two weeks before admission, she experienced epigastric pain of unknown cause, which manifested as intermittent dull pain and worsened after meals. Associated symptoms included anorexia, darkened urine, skin and scleral jaundice with pruritus. She denied having a fever and reported an unintentional weight loss of approximately 10 kg. Her past medical history included a 6-year history of diabetes mellitus (controlled with oral metformin, with fasting blood glucose levels around 7.0 mmol/L), a history of chronic cerebral infarction, and a history of appendectomy.Diagnostic procedures such as gastroscopy, contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CT), and positron emission tomography-computed tomography (PET-CT) were crucial in confirming the diagnosis of a duodenal papillary carcinoma, as emphasized in a comparative study of imaging techniques for such tumors. The tumor was deemed resectable with no contraindications to surgery, as indicated by the high success rates and low complication rates observed in similar cases, such as those detailed in the provided references. The patient then underwent laparoscopic radical pancreaticoduodenectomy under general anesthesia.The operation lasted 260 minutes, and the intraoperative blood loss was 50 ml. Postoperatively, the patient recovered smoothly and was discharged on the 13 th day with all drainage tubes removed.