Prognostic indicators following curative pancreatoduodenectomy for pancreatic carcinoma: A retrospective multivariate analysis of a single centre experience.

Purpose: Survival after curative resection of pancreatic, ampullary and lower common bile duct cancer remains very poor. The aim of this study was to assess important prognostic factors in patients with resectable pancreatic cancer.

Methods: From 2006 to 2010, 156 patients underwent pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) for malignancies of pancreatic, ampullary or lower common bile duct in our institution. Based on the inclusion criteria 101 patients were selected in our retrospective statistical analysis. Of these 101 cases of malignancies, 65.4% were located in the pancreatic head, 18.8% in the ampulla and 15.8% in the lower bile duct. 48.5% of patients underwent classical PD, and 51.5% pylorus-preserving pancreatoduodenectomy (PPPD). Clinical and pathological data were collected, Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazard models were used to evaluate prognostic factors.

Results: Multivariate analysis revealed that blood transfusion, vascular invasion, T4 vs T1 stage, and R0 resection margins were significant negative predictors of survival. Conversely, ampullary (vs pancreatic ductal) and adjuvant chemotherapy were significantly associated with longer survival. Lymph node ratio (LNR), in all its forms, was not found to have a significant effect on survival. For all patients, tumor grading (p=0.042), resection margins (p=0.004), T stage (p=0.001), perineural invasion (p=0.029), vascular invasion (p=0.007) and age >65 years (p=0.009) were factors that impacted survival.

Conclusion: Surgical resection margins, tumor grade, T stage, perineural invasion, vascular invasion, age >65 and adjuvant chemotherapy are the strongest predictors of survival after surgical resection of pancreatic, ampullary and lower common bile duct cancer. In this series, lymph node ratio did not impact survival.