Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma, Version 2.2021, NCCN Clinical Practice Guidelines in Oncology

The benefit of adjuvant chemotherapy following pancreaticoduodenectomy for pancreatic adenocarcinoma depends on response to neoadjuvant therapy

BACKGROUND

The benefit of adjuvant therapy (AT) remains unclear in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) after neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) and surgical resection.

METHODS

The 2019 National Cancer Database was queried for patients with non-metastatic PDAC who received NAT followed by pancreaticoduodenectomy. Only patients with data regarding receipt of AT were included. Patients were classified if they had nodal down-staging specifically, or any downstaging (Tumor, Nodal, or overall). Propensity score matching (PSM) adjusted for pretreatment covariate imbalance between groups. The weighted Kaplan-Meier method and log-rank test were used to estimate the cumulative survival.

RESULTS

After exclusion criteria and PSM, a total of 2784 patients remained; 1689 (60.7%) received AT and 1095 (39.3%) did not receive AT. Among all, those with additional AT had a significantly improved overall survival (OS) (p < 0.001). Upon evaluation of patients without downstaging after NAT, those who received AT had improved OS (no nodal downstaging or any downstaging; p = 0.002; p = 0.001). When evaluating patients with downstaging after NAT, those receiving AT did not have improved OS (nodal downstaging or any downstaging: p = 0.352; p = 0.99).

CONCLUSION

Response to NAT appears to correlate with the benefit of AT following pancreaticoduodenectomy; patients who have a favorable response to NAT may not benefit from AT.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: the latest on diagnosis, molecular profiling, and systemic treatments

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is currently the fourth leading cause of death in the United States and is expected to be ranked second in the next 10 years due to poor prognosis and a rising incidence. Distant metastatic PDAC is associated with the worst prognosis among the different phases of PDAC. The diagnostic options for PDAC are convenient and available for staging, tumor response evaluation, and management of resectable or borderline resectable PDAC. However, imaging is crucial in PDAC diagnosis, monitoring, resectability appraisal, and response evaluation. The advancement of medical technologies is evolving, hence the use of imaging in PDAC treatment options has grown as well as the utilization of ctDNA as a tumor marker. Treatment options for metastatic PDAC are minimal with the primary goal of therapy limited to symptom relief or palliation, especially in patients with low functional capacity at the point of diagnosis. Molecular profiling has shown promising potential solutions that would push the treatment boundaries for patients with PDAC. In this review, we will discuss the latest updates from evidence-based guidelines regarding diagnosis, therapy response evaluation, prognosis, and surveillance, as well as illustrating novel therapies that have been recently investigated for PDAC, in addition to discussing the molecular profiling advances in PDAC.

Tumour-associated neutrophils: Potential therapeutic targets in pancreatic cancer immunotherapy

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is a highly malignant tumour of the digestive system with poor therapeutic response and low survival rates. Immunotherapy has rapidly developed in recent years and has achieved significant outcomes in numerous malignant neoplasms. However, responses to immunotherapy in PC are rare, and the immunosuppressive and desmoplastic tumour microenvironment (TME) significantly hinders their efficacy in PC. Tumour-associated neutrophils (TANs) play a crucial role in the PC microenvironment and exert a profound influence on PC immunotherapy by establishing a robust stromal shelter and restraining immune cells to assist PC cells in immune escape, which may subvert the current status of PC immunotherapy. The present review aims to offer a comprehensive summary of the latest progress in understanding the involvement of TANs in PC desmoplastic and immunosuppressive functions and to emphasise the potential therapeutic implications of focusing on TANs in the immunotherapy of this deleterious disease. Finally, we provide an outlook for the future use of TANs in PC immunotherapy.

Metabolic tumor burden as a prognostic indicator after neoadjuvant chemotherapy in pancreatic cancer

BACKGROUND

There is no standardized assessment for evaluating response although neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAT) is widely accepted for borderline resectable or locally advanced pancreatic cancer (BRPC or LAPC). This study was aimed to evaluate NAT response using positron emission tomography (PET) with 2-deoxy-2-[fluorine-18]fluoro-D-glucose ( 18 F-FDG-PET/CT) parameters alongside carbohydrate antigen (CA) 19-9 levels.

METHODS

Patients who underwent surgery after NAT for BRPC and LAPC between 2017 and 2021 were identified. The study assessed the prognostic value of PET-derived parameters after NAT, determining cutoff values using the K-adaptive partitioning method. It created four groups based on the elevation or normalization of PET parameters and CA19-9 levels, comparing survival between these groups.

RESULTS

Of 200 eligible patients, FOLFIRINOX and gemcitabine-based NAT was administered in 166 and 34 patients, respectively (mean NAT cycles, 8.3). In a multivariate analysis, metabolic tumor volume (MTV) demonstrated the most robust performance in assessing response [hazard ratio (HR) 3.11, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.73-5.58, P <0.001] based on cutoff value of 2.4. Patients with decreased MTV had significantly better survival than those with elevated MTV among individuals with CA19-9 levels less than 37 IU/l (median survival; 35.5 vs. 20.9 months, P <0.001) and CA19-9 levels at least 37 IU/l (median survival; 34.3 vs. 17.8 months, P =0.03). In patients suspected to be Lewis antigen negative, the predictive performance of MTV was found to be limited ( P =0.84).

CONCLUSION

Elevated MTV is an influential prognostic factor for worse survival, regardless of post-NAT CA19-9 levels. These results could be helpful in identifying patients with a poor prognosis despite normalization of CA19-9 levels after NAT.

Safety of biliary drainage with 6-mm metallic stent for preoperative obstructive jaundice in pancreatic cancer: PURPLE SIX STUDY

BACKGROUND AND AIM

The 10-mm self-expandable metal stent (SEMS) is the standard for endoscopic transpapillary biliary drainage before pancreatic cancer surgery. However, the efficacy of stents thinner than 10 mm has not been adequately validated. Therefore, we aimed to evaluate the safety of a 6-mm fully covered SEMS (FCSEMS) for distal malignant biliary obstruction (DMBO) during preoperative chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer.

METHODS

This was a single-arm, multicenter, prospective phase II study of endoscopic transpapillary initial biliary drainage for DMBO before pancreatic cancer surgery. The primary endpoint was stent-related adverse events, and the key secondary endpoint was the non-recurrent biliary obstruction (non-RBO) rate during the observation period for both resectable (R) and borderline resectable (BR) pancreatic cancers.

RESULTS

The study enrolled 33 patients, among whom 32 received the study treatment. There were 23 and 9 cases of R and BR pancreatic cancers, respectively. The technical and clinical success rates were 97.0% and 90.1%, respectively. The stent-related adverse event rate was 3.1% (n = 1, acute pancreatitis) (95% confidential interval, 0.00-16.2), which met the criteria to be considered safe. The overall non-RBO rate during the observation period (median 96 days) was 78.1% (82.6% and 66.7% for R and BR pancreatic cancer cases, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

The 6-mm FCSEMS is an extremely safe metallic stent with a low stent-related adverse event rate of 3.1% for preoperative biliary drainage in pancreatic cancer. It is considered the optimal stent for preoperative biliary drainage in terms of the non-RBO rate. UMIN Clinical Trial Registry (UMIN-CTR 000041704).

Patient-reported outcome measures in surgical patients with upper gastrointestinal cancers: A qualitative interview study

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Patients with pancreatic and gastroesophageal (PGE) cancers experience high symptom burden, but patient experience throughout multimodality treatment remains unclear. We aimed to delineate the experience and symptom burden of patients throughout their perioperative course.

METHODS

Qualitative interviews were performed with 17 surgical patients with PGE cancer. Interview transcripts were analyzed and symptoms were ranked by frequency. An expert panel assessed the relevance of these symptom inventory items.

RESULTS

Of the 17 patients included, 35% (n = 6) underwent gastrectomy, 30% (n = 5) underwent esophagectomy, and 35% (n = 6) underwent pancreatectomy; 76% (n = 13) received neoadjuvant systemic chemotherapy and/or chemoradiation. Overall, 32 symptoms were reported, and 19 were reported by over 20% of patients. An expert panel rated nine symptoms to be relevant or very relevant to PGE surgical patients. These symptoms (difficulty swallowing, heartburn/reflux, diarrhea, constipation, flushing/sweating, stomach feeling full, malaise, dizziness, or feeling cold) were added to the core MD Anderson Symptom Inventory (MDASI) if they were commonly reported or reached a threshold relevancy score.

CONCLUSIONS

In this qualitative study, we developed a provisional symptom inventory for patients undergoing surgery for PGE cancer. This symptom inventory module of the MDASI for PGE surgical patients will be psychometrically tested for validity and reliability.

Best supportive care in advanced pancreas cancer: a systematic review to define a patient-care bundle

BACKGROUND

The majority of patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) have advanced disease at presentation, preventing treatment with curative intent. Management of these patients is often provided by surgical teams for whom there are a lack of widely accepted strategies for care. The aim of this study was to conduct a systematic review to identify key issues in patients with advanced PDAC and integrate the evidence to form a care bundle checklist for use in surgical clinics.

METHODS

A systematic review of the literature was performed regarding best supportive care for advanced PDAC according to the PRISMA guidelines. Interventions pertaining to supportive care were included whilst preventative and curative treatments were excluded. A narrative review was planned.

RESULTS

Forty-four studies were assessed and four themes were developed: (i) Pain is an undertreated symptom, requiring escalating analgesics and sometimes invasive modalities. (ii) Health-related quality of life necessitates optimisation by involving family, carers and multi-disciplinary teams. (iii) Malnutrition and weight loss can be mitigated with early assessment, replacement therapies and resistance exercise. (iv) Biliary and duodenal obstruction can often be relieved by endoscopic/radiological interventions with surgery rarely required.

CONCLUSION

This is the first systematic review to evaluate the different types of interventions utilized during best supportive care in patients with advanced PDAC. It provides a comprehensive care bundle for surgeons that informs management of the common issues experienced by patients within a multidisciplinary environment.

Role of liver resection in the era of advanced systemic therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma

The recent dramatic progress in systemic therapy for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) provides the possibility of a combination of surgery and systemic therapy including adjuvant, neoadjuvant, or conversion settings. Since the turn of the century, at least three negative studies have tested adjuvant therapies after curative resection or ablation, including uracil-tegafur, which is an oral chemotherapeutic drug, sorafenib, and peretinoin, which a synthetic retinoid that may induce the apoptosis and differentiation of liver cancer cells. Using more potent immuno-checkpoint inhibitors (ICIs), at least 4 phase III trials of adjuvant immunotherapy are ongoing: nivolumab, durvalumab/ bevacizumab, pembrolizumab, and atezolizumab+bevacizumab. Very recently, the last trial indicated a significantly better recurrence-free survival (RFS) for adjuvant atezolizumab+bevacizumab. Another promising combination of surgery and systemic therapy is neoadjuvant therapy for potentially resectable cases or a conversion strategy for oncologically unresectable cases. There are 2 neoadjuvant trials for technically or oncologically unresectable HCCs ongoing in Japan: the LENS-HCC trial using lenvatinib and the RACB study using atezolizumab+bevacizumab. A longer follow-up may be needed, but the overall survival (OS) in resected cases seems much higher than that in unresectable cases. Recently, the Japan Liver Cancer Association (JLCA) and the Japanese Society of HPB Surgery (JSHPBS) created a joint working group on "so-called borderline resectable HCC". They obtained a Japanese consensus on this issue that has been published on the websites of JLCA and JSHPBS. The definition of resectability or borderline resectability provides a common language regarding advanced HCC for investigators and is a useful tool for future clinical trials.

Combination of sarcopenia and systemic inflammation-based markers for predicting the prognosis of patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy for pancreatic cancer

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to evaluate the effects of sarcopenia and inflammation on the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer after pancreaticoduodenectomy.

METHODS

Eighty patients who had undergone pancreaticoduodenectomy for pancreatic cancer between July 2010 and December 2023 were included in this study. The psoas muscle index was used to assess sarcopenia. The C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio, prognostic nutritional index, neutrophil-to-lymphocyte ratio, and platelet-to-lymphocyte ratio were used to calculate the preoperative inflammatory marker levels. The prognostic factors for overall survival were determined using Cox regression analysis.

RESULTS

Twenty-four patients were diagnosed with sarcopenia. Sarcopenia showed a significant association with advanced tumor stage. Univariate analysis revealed a significant reduction in overall survival in patients with a prognostic nutritional index of <45, C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio of ≥0.047, cancer antigen 19-9 levels of ≥130 U/mL, sarcopenia, lymph node metastasis, and vascular invasion. Multivariate analysis revealed that a C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio of ≥0.047 (hazards ratio, 3.383; 95% confidence interval: 1.384-8.689; p< 0.001), cancer antigen 19-9 levels of ≥130 U/mL (hazards ratio, 2.720; 95% confidence interval: 1.291-6.060; p = 0.008), sarcopenia (hazards ratio, 3.256; 95% confidence interval: 1.535-7.072; p = 0.002) and vascular invasion (hazards ratio, 2.092; 95% confidence interval: 1.057-4.170; p = 0.034) were independent predictors of overall survival. Overall survival in the sarcopenia and high C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio groups was significantly poorer than that in the non-sarcopenia and low C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio and sarcopenia or high C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio groups.

CONCLUSION

Sarcopenia and a high C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio are independent prognostic factors in patients with pancreatic cancer after pancreaticoduodenectomy. Thus, sarcopenia may have a better prognostic value when combined with the C-reactive protein-to-albumin ratio.

Organ and function preservation in gastrointestinal cancer: Current and future perspectives on endoscopic ablation

The escalating prevalence of gastrointestinal cancers underscores the urgency for transformative approaches. Current treatment costs amount to billions of dollars annually, combined with the risks and comorbidities associated with invasive surgery. This highlights the importance of less invasive alternatives with organ preservation being a central aspect of the treatment paradigm. The current standard of care typically involves neoadjuvant systemic therapy followed by surgical resection. There is a growing interest in organ preservation approaches by way of minimizing extensive surgical resections. Endoscopic ablation has proven to be useful in precursor lesions, as well as in palliative cases of unresectable disease. More recently, there has been an increase in reports on the utility of adjunct endoscopic ablative techniques for downstaging disease as well as contributing to non-surgical complete clinical response. This expansive field within endoscopic oncology holds great potential for advancing patient care. By addressing challenges, fostering collaboration, and embracing technological advancements, the gastrointestinal cancer treatment paradigm can shift towards a more sustainable and patient-centric future emphasizing organ and function preservation. This editorial examines the evolving landscape of endoscopic ablation strategies, emphasizing their potential to improve patient outcomes. We briefly review current applications of endoscopic ablation in the esophagus, stomach, duodenum, pancreas, bile ducts, and colon.

Advances in Surgery and (Neo) Adjuvant Therapy in the Management of Pancreatic Cancer

A multimodality approach, which usually includes chemotherapy, surgery, and/or radiotherapy, is optimal for patients with localized pancreatic cancer. The timing and sequence of these interventions depend on anatomic resectability and the biological suitability of the tumor and the patient. Tumors with vascular involvement (ie, borderline resectable/locally advanced) require surgical reassessments after therapy and participation of surgeons familiar with advanced techniques. When indicated, venous reconstruction should be offered as standard of care because it has acceptable morbidity. Morbidity and mortality of pancreas surgery may be mitigated when surgery is performed at high-volume centers.

Comparing upfront surgery with neoadjuvant treatments in patients with resectable, borderline resectable or locally advanced pancreatic cancer: a systematic review and network meta-analysis of randomized clinical trials

BACKGROUND

The aim was to explore the optimal neoadjuvant therapy strategy for resectable, borderline resectable, and locally advanced pancreatic cancer, in order to provide a theoretical basis for the development of new neoadjuvant treatment protocols for clinical use.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

The authors reviewed literature titles and abstracts comparing three treatment strategies (neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and upfront surgery) in PubMed, Embase, The Cochrane Library, Web of Science from 2009 to 2023 to estimate relative odds ratios for resection rate and hazard ratios (HRs) for overall survival (OS) in all include trials.

RESULTS

A total of nine studies involving 889 patients were included in the analysis. The treatment methods included upfront surgery, neoadjuvant chemotherapy, and neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery. The network meta-analysis results demonstrated that neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery was an effective approach in improving OS for resectable and borderline resectable pancreatic cancer (RPC) patients compared to upfront surgery (HR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.64-0.98) and neoadjuvant chemotherapy (HR: 0.79, 95% CI: 0.64-0.98). Additionally, neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy significantly increased the margin negative resection (R0) rate and pathological negative lymph node (pN0) rate in patients with resectable and borderline RPC. However, it is worth noting that neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy increased the risk of grade 3 or higher treatment-related adverse events, including in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer.

CONCLUSIONS

The current evidence suggests that neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy followed by surgery is the optimal choice for treating patients with resectable and borderline RPC. Future research should focus on optimizing neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy regimens to effectively improve OS while reducing the occurrence of adverse events.

Systemic treatments in pancreatic cancer: Taiwan pancreas society recommendation

Pancreatic cancer is a highly aggressive malignancy with a poor prognosis. Over the past decade, significant therapeutic advancements have improved the survival rates of patients with pancreatic cancer. One of the primary factors contributing to these positive outcomes is the evolution of chemotherapy, from monotherapy to doublet or triplet regimens, and the integration of multimodal approaches. Additionally, targeted agents tailored to patients with specific genetic alterations and the development of cell therapies show promise in benefiting certain subpopulations. This article focuses on examining pivotal studies that explore the role of chemotherapy in neoadjuvant, adjuvant, maintenance, and salvage settings; highlights interesting findings related to cell therapy; and provides an overview of ongoing trials concerning metastatic settings. This review primarily aimed to offer recommendations based on therapeutic evidence, recent advancements in new treatment combinations, and the most innovative approaches. A unique aspect of this review is the inclusion of published papers on clinical trials and real-world data in Taiwan, thus adding a valuable perspective to the overall analysis.

A multicenter retrospective observational NAPOLEON2 study of nanoliposomal irinotecan with fluorouracil and folinic acid in patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer

Nanoliposomal irinotecan with fluorouracil and folinic acid (NFF) is a standard regimen after gemcitabine-based therapy for patients with unresectable or recurrent pancreatic cancer. However, there are limited clinical data on its efficacy and safety in the real-world. We therefore initiated a retrospective and prospective observational study (NAPOLEON-2). The results of the retrospective part were reported herein. In this retrospective study, we evaluated 161 consecutive patients who received NFF as second-or-later-line regimen. The main endpoint was overall survival (OS), and the other endpoints were response rate, disease control rate, progression-free survival (PFS), dose intensity, and adverse events (AEs). The median age was 67 years (range, 38-85 years). The median OS and PFS were 8.1 and 3.4 months, respectively. The objective response and disease control rates were 5% and 52%, respectively. The median relative dose intensity was 81.6% for nanoliposomal irinotecan and 82.9% for fluorouracil. Grade 3 or 4 hematological and nonhematological AEs occurred in 47 and 42 patients, respectively. Common grade 3 or 4 AEs included neutropenia (24%), anorexia (12%), and leukocytopenia (12%). Subanalysis of patients treated with second-line and third-or-later-line demonstrated no statistical significant difference in OS (7.6 months vs. 9.1 months, respectively; hazard ratio, 0.92; 95% confidence interval, 0.64-1.35; p = 0.68). In conclusion, NFF has acceptable efficacy and safety profile even in real-world clinical settings. The prospective study is in progress to validate these findings.

[The Value of Clinical Characteristics and Hematological Parameters for Prognostic Assessment of Pancreatic Cancer Patients Undergoing Radical Resection]

Objective

To explore the relationship between baseline clinical characteristics and hematological parameters of patients undergoing radical resection for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and their prognosis, and to provide references for stratifying the patients' clinical risks.

Methods

We retrospectively collected clinical data from 445 patients who underwent radical surgical treatment for PDAC at West China Hospital, Sichuan University between January 2010 and February 2019. Then, we conducted retrospective clinical analysis with the collected data. Data on patients' basic clinical characteristics, routine blood test results, and tumor indicators were collected to explore their effects on the postoperative overall survival (OS) of PDAC patients. Cox proportional hazards regression was used to identify factors affecting OS. Statistical analysis was performed using the SPSS 23.0 software package.

Results

The postoperative median overall survival (mOS) was 17.0 months (95% CI: 15.0-19.0). The 1, 2, 3, 4, and 5-year survival rates of the patients included in the study were 60.6%, 33.4%, 19.1%, 12.7%, and 9.6%, respectively. The multivariate Cox proportional hazards model analysis demonstrated that a number of factors independently affect postoperative survival in PDAC patients. These factors include tumor location (hazards ratio [HR]=1.574, 95% CI: 1.233-2.011), degree of tumor cell differentiation (HR=0.687, 95% CI: 0.542-0.870), presence of neural invasion (HR=0.686, 95% CI: 0.538-0.876), TNM staging (HR=1.572, 95% CI: 1.252-1.974), postoperative adjuvant therapy (HR=1.799, 95% CI: 1.390-2.328), preoperative drinking history (HR=0.744, 95% CI: 0.588-0.943), and high serum CA199 levels prior to the surgery (HR=0.742, 95% CI: 0.563-0.977).

Conclusion

In PDAC patients, having tumors located in the head of the pancreas, moderate and high degrees of differentiated, being free from local neurovascular invasion, being in TNM stage Ⅰ, undergoing postoperative adjuvant therapy, no history of alcohol consumption prior to the surgery, and preoperative serum CA199 being less than or equal to 37 U/mL are significantly associated with a better prognosis.

Cellular collusion: cracking the code of immunosuppression and chemo resistance in PDAC

Despite the efforts, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is still highly lethal. Therapeutic challenges reside in late diagnosis and establishment of peculiar tumor microenvironment (TME) supporting tumor outgrowth. This stromal landscape is highly heterogeneous between patients and even in the same patient. The organization of functional sub-TME with different cellular compositions provides evolutive advantages and sustains therapeutic resistance. Tumor progressively establishes a TME that can suit its own needs, including proliferation, stemness and invasion. Cancer-associated fibroblasts and immune cells, the main non-neoplastic cellular TME components, follow soluble factors-mediated neoplastic instructions and synergize to promote chemoresistance and immune surveillance destruction. Unveiling heterotypic stromal-neoplastic interactions is thus pivotal to breaking this synergism and promoting the reprogramming of the TME toward an anti-tumor milieu, improving thus the efficacy of conventional and immune-based therapies. We underscore recent advances in the characterization of immune and fibroblast stromal components supporting or dampening pancreatic cancer progression, as well as novel multi-omic technologies improving the current knowledge of PDAC biology. Finally, we put into context how the clinic will translate the acquired knowledge to design new-generation clinical trials with the final aim of improving the outcome of PDAC patients.

Extracellular volume-based scoring system for tracking tumor progression in pancreatic cancer patients receiving intraoperative radiotherapy

OBJECTIVES

To investigate the value of extracellular volume (ECV) derived from portal-venous phase (PVP) in predicting prognosis in locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) patients receiving intraoperative radiotherapy (IORT) with initial stable disease (SD) and to construct a risk-scoring system based on ECV and clinical-radiological features.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

One hundred and three patients with LAPC who received IORT demonstrating SD were enrolled and underwent multiphasic contrast-enhanced CT (CECT) before and after IORT. ECV maps were generated from unenhanced and PVP CT images. Clinical and CT imaging features were analyzed. The independent predictors of progression-free survival (PFS) determined by multivariate Cox regression model were used to construct the risk-scoring system. Time-dependent receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis and the Kaplan-Meier method were used to evaluate the predictive performance of the scoring system.

RESULTS

Multivariable analysis revealed that ECV, rim-enhancement, peripancreatic fat infiltration, and carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) response were significant predictors of PFS (all p < 0.05). Time-dependent ROC of the risk-scoring system showed a satisfactory predictive performance for disease progression with area under the curve (AUC) all above 0.70. High-risk patients (risk score ≥ 2) progress significantly faster than low-risk patients (risk score < 2) (p < 0.001).

CONCLUSION

ECV derived from PVP of conventional CECT was an independent predictor for progression in LAPC patients assessed as SD after IORT. The scoring system integrating ECV, radiological features, and CA19-9 response can be used as a practical tool for stratifying prognosis in these patients, assisting clinicians in developing an appropriate treatment approach.

CRITICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT

The scoring system integrating ECV fraction, radiological features, and CA19-9 response can track tumor progression in patients with LAPC receiving IORT, aiding clinicians in choosing individual treatment strategies and improving their prognosis.

KEY POINTS

Predicting the progression of LAPC in patients receiving IORT is important. Our ECV-based scoring system can risk stratifying patients with initial SD. Appropriate prognostication can assist clinicians in developing appropriate treatment approaches.

Optimal age to discontinue long-term surveillance of intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms: comparative cost-effectiveness of surveillance by age

OBJECTIVE

Current guidelines recommend long-term image-based surveillance for patients with low-risk intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMNs). This simulation study aimed to examine the comparative cost-effectiveness of continued versus discontinued surveillance at different ages and define the optimal age to stop surveillance.

DESIGN

We constructed a Markov model with a lifetime horizon to simulate the clinical course of patients with IPMNs receiving imaging-based surveillance. We calculated incremental cost-effectiveness ratios (ICERs) for continued versus discontinued surveillance at different ages to stop surveillance, stratified by sex and IPMN types (branch-duct vs mixed-type). We determined the optimal age to stop surveillance as the lowest age at which the ICER exceeded the willingness-to-pay threshold of US$100 000 per quality-adjusted life year. To estimate model parameters, we used a clinical cohort of 3000 patients with IPMNs and a national database including 40 166 patients with pancreatic cancer receiving pancreatectomy as well as published data.

RESULTS

In male patients, the optimal age to stop surveillance was 76-78 years irrespective of the IPMN types, compared with 70, 73, 81, and 84 years for female patients with branch-duct IPMNs <20 mm, =20-29 mm, ≥30 mm and mixed-type IPMNs, respectively. The suggested ages became younger according to an increasing level of comorbidities. In cases with high comorbidity burden, the ICERs were above the willingness-to-pay threshold irrespective of sex and the size of branch-duct IPMNs.

CONCLUSIONS

The cost-effectiveness of long-term IPMN surveillance depended on sex, IPMN types, and comorbidity levels, suggesting the potential to personalise patient management from the health economic perspective.

A clinical-radiomics nomogram based on dual-layer spectral detector CT to predict cancer stage in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND

This study aimed to evaluate the efficacy of radiomics signatures derived from polyenergetic images (PEIs) and virtual monoenergetic images (VMIs) obtained through dual-layer spectral detector CT (DLCT). Moreover, it sought to develop a clinical-radiomics nomogram based on DLCT for predicting cancer stage (early stage: stage I-II, advanced stage: stage III-IV) in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

METHODS

A total of 173 patients histopathologically diagnosed with PDAC and who underwent contrast-enhanced DLCT were enrolled in this study. Among them, 49 were in the early stage, and 124 were in the advanced stage. Patients were randomly categorized into training (n = 122) and test (n = 51) cohorts at a 7:3 ratio. Radiomics features were extracted from PEIs and 40-keV VMIs were reconstructed at both arterial and portal venous phases. Radiomics signatures were constructed based on both PEIs and 40-keV VMIs. A radiomics nomogram was developed by integrating the 40-keV VMI-based radiomics signature with selected clinical predictors. The performance of the nomogram was assessed using receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curves, calibration curves, and decision curves analysis (DCA).

RESULTS

The PEI-based radiomics signature demonstrated satisfactory diagnostic efficacy, with the areas under the ROC curves (AUCs) of 0.92 in both the training and test cohorts. The optimal radiomics signature was based on 40-keV VMIs, with AUCs of 0.96 and 0.94 in the training and test cohorts. The nomogram, which integrated a 40-keV VMI-based radiomics signature with two clinical parameters (tumour diameter and normalized iodine density at the portal venous phase), demonstrated promising calibration and discrimination in both the training and test cohorts (0.97 and 0.91, respectively). DCA indicated that the clinical-radiomics nomogram provided the most significant clinical benefit.

CONCLUSIONS

The radiomics signature derived from 40-keV VMI and the clinical-radiomics nomogram based on DLCT both exhibited exceptional performance in distinguishing early from advanced stages in PDAC, aiding clinical decision-making for patients with this condition.

Analysis of chemoresistance characteristics and prognostic relevance of postoperative gemcitabine adjuvant chemotherapy in pancreatic cancer

AIM

To investigate the relationship between chemoresistance in pancreatic cancer patients receiving postoperative gemcitabine adjuvant therapy and specific clinical/pathological characteristics, as well as its impact on patient prognosis.

METHODS

From June 2018 to June 2021, clinical and pathological data of 148 pancreatic cancer patients were collected, and 101 patients were followed up for tumor recurrence/metastasis and survival status. The correlation between chemoresistance and specific clinical/pathological characteristics or patient prognosis was retrospectively analyzed.

RESULTS

Of the 148 patients, 78 were in the chemoresistance group and 70 in the non-chemoresistance group. Univariate analysis showed that the development of chemoresistance may be related to patient age, combined diabetes, preoperative CA19-9 level, tumor size, AJCC stage, vascular invasion, and positive lymph node ratio. Furthermore, subsequent multivariate analysis incorporating these variables indicated that tumor size may be a key factor influencing chemoresistance (p < 0.001, OR = 1.584). Log-rank test showed patients in the chemoresistance group had worse overall survival (OS) (HR = 2.102, p = 0.018) and progression free survival (PFS) (HR = 3.208, p = 0.002) than patients in the non-chemoresistance group; and patients with smaller size tumors (diameter ≤3 cm) had significantly better OS (HR = 2.923, p < 0.001) and PFS (HR = 2.930, p = 0.003) than those with larger size tumors (diameter >3 cm).

CONCLUSIONS

Patients with pancreatic cancer receiving postoperative gemcitabine adjuvant therapy are more likely to develop chemoresistance when their tumor sizes are larger (diameter >3 cm). Development of chemoresistance exacerbates the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer, and larger tumor size is also a risk factor for poor prognosis in these patients.

Germline Pathogenic Variants in Patients With Pancreatic and Periampullary Cancers

PURPOSE

Inherited cancer susceptibility is often not suspected in the absence of a significant cancer family history. Pathogenic germline variants in pancreatic cancer are well-studied, and routine genetic testing is recommended in the guidelines. However, data on rare periampullary cancers other than pancreatic cancer are insufficient. We compared the prevalence of germline susceptibility variants in patients with pancreatic cancer and nonpancreatic periampullary cancers.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

Six hundred and eight patients who had undergone pancreaticoduodenal resection at a tertiary referral hospital were studied, including 213 with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, 172 with ampullary cancer, 154 with distal common bile duct cancer, and 69 with duodenal adenocarcinoma. Twenty cancer susceptibility and candidate susceptibility genes were sequenced, and variant interpretation was assessed by interrogating ClinVar and PubMed.

RESULTS

Pathogenic or likely pathogenic, moderate- to high-penetrant germline variants were identified in 46 patients (7.7%), including a similar percentage of patients with pancreatic (8.5%) and nonpancreatic periampullary cancer (7.1%). Low-penetrant variants were identified in an additional 11 patients (1.8%). Eighty-nine percent of the moderate- to high-penetrant variants involved the major cancer susceptibility genes BRCA2, ATM, BRCA1, CDKN2A, MSH2/MLH1, and PALB2; the remaining 11% involved other cancer susceptibility genes such as BRIP1, BAP1, and MSH6. Almost all pathogenic variant carriers had a family history of cancer.

CONCLUSION

Patients with pancreatic and nonpancreatic periampullary cancer have a similar prevalence of pathogenic cancer susceptibility variants. Germline susceptibility testing should be considered for patients with any periampullary cancer.

Examining neoadjuvant treatment candidates in resectable pancreatic cancer based on tumor-vessel interactions and CA 19-9 levels: a retrospective cohort study

INTRODUCTION

The applicability of neoadjuvant treatment (NAT) for resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has arisen, however, high-level evidence is lacking. This study aimed to explore patient subgroups with high-risk resectable PDAC for selecting candidates who may benefit from NAT.

METHODS

The 1132 patients with resectable or borderline resectable PDAC who underwent surgery between 2007 and 2021 were retrospectively reviewed. Patients with resectable PDAC without contact of major vessels (R-no contact) ( n =651), with contact of portal vein or superior mesenteric vein (PV/SMV) ≤180° (R-contact) ( n =306), and borderline resectable PDAC without arterial involvement (BR-V) ( n =175) were analyzed.

RESULTS

The mean age was 64.3±9.8 years, and 647 patients (57.2%) were male. The median follow-up was 26 months in the entire cohort. Patients with resectable PDAC without vascular contact had the most improved overall survival (OS) (median; 31.5 months). OS did not significantly differ between NAT and upfront surgery in the entire resectable PDAC cohort. However, in R-contact group, NAT showed significantly improved OS compared to upfront surgery (33 vs. 23 months). Neoadjuvant FOLFIRINOX was showed a better OS than gemcitabine-based regimens in patients who underwent NAT (34 vs. 24 months). NAT was associated with a better survival in the patients with CA 19-9 level ≥150 U/ml, only when the tumor has PV/SMV contact in resectable disease (40 vs. 19 months, P =0.001).

CONCLUSIONS

NAT can be considered as an effective treatment in patients with resectable PDAC, particularly when the tumor is in contact with PV/SMV and CA 19-9 ≥150 U/ml.

Oil blotting paper for formalin fixation increases endoscopic ultrasound-guided tissue acquisition-collected sample volumes on glass slides

OBJECTIVES

Endoscopic ultrasound-guided tissue acquisition (EUS-TA) is used for pathological diagnosis and obtaining samples for molecular testing, facilitating the initiation of targeted therapies in patients with pancreatic cancer. However, samples obtained via EUS-TA are often insufficient, requiring more efforts to improve sampling adequacy for molecular testing. Therefore, this study investigated the use of oil blotting paper for formalin fixation of samples obtained via EUS-TA.

METHODS

This prospective study enrolled 42 patients who underwent EUS-TA for pancreatic cancer between September 2020 and February 2022 at the Osaka International Cancer Institute. After a portion of each sample obtained via EUS-TA was separated for routine histological evaluation, the residual samples were divided into filter paper and oil blotting paper groups for analysis. Accordingly, filter paper and oil blotting paper were used for the formalin fixation process. The total tissue, nuclear, and cytoplasm areas of each sample were quantitatively evaluated using virtual slides, and the specimen volume and histological diagnosis of each sample were evaluated by an expert pathologist.

RESULTS

All cases were cytologically diagnosed as adenocarcinoma. The area ratios of the total tissue, nuclear, and cytoplasmic portions were significantly larger in the oil blotting paper group than in the filter paper group. The frequency of cases with large amount of tumor cells was significantly higher in the oil blotting paper group (33.3%) than in the filter paper group (11.9%) (p = 0.035).

CONCLUSIONS

Oil blotting paper can increase the sample volume obtained via EUS-TA on glass slides and improve sampling adequacy for molecular testing.

A Nine-Year-Old Child With Metastatic Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is exceedingly rare in children. Here, we report the case of a nine-year-old boy diagnosed with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. The patient was treated per the National Comprehensive Cancer Network® (NCCN®) guidelines for adults with pancreatic cancer. Though the patient had multiple episodes of progression, the patient has remained alive with the disease 18 months after the initial diagnosis.

Development of a CT radiomics nomogram for preoperative prediction of Ki-67 index in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: a two-center retrospective study

OBJECTIVES

To develop and validate a contrast-enhanced computed tomography (CECT)-based radiomics nomogram for the preoperative evaluation of Ki-67 proliferation status in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

METHODS

In this two-center retrospective study, a total of 181 patients (95 in the training cohort; 42 in the testing cohort, and 44 in the external validation cohort) with PDAC who underwent CECT examination were included. Radiomic features were extracted from portal venous phase images. The radiomics signatures were built by using two feature-selecting methods (relief and recursive feature elimination) and four classifiers (support vector machine, naive Bayes, linear discriminant analysis (LDA), and logistic regression (LR)). Multivariate LR was used to build a clinical model and radiomics-clinical nomogram. The predictive performances of the models were evaluated using area under receiver operating characteristic curve (AUC) and decision curve analysis (DCA).

RESULTS

The relief selector and LDA classifier using twelve features built the optimal radiomics signature, with AUCs of 0.948, 0.927, and 0.824 in the training, testing, and external validation cohorts, respectively. The radiomics-clinical nomogram incorporating the optimal radiomics signature, CT-reported lymph node status, and CA19-9 showed better predictive performance with AUCs of 0.976, 0.955, and 0.882 in the training, testing, and external validation cohorts, respectively. The calibration curve and DCA demonstrated goodness-of-fit and improved benefits in clinical practice of the nomogram.

CONCLUSIONS

The radiomics-clinical nomogram is an effective and non-invasive computer-aided tool to predict the Ki-67 expression status in patients with PDAC.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT

The radiomics-clinical nomogram is an effective and non-invasive computer-aided tool to predict the Ki-67 expression status in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.

KEY POINTS

The radiomics analysis could be helpful to predict Ki-67 expression status in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). The radiomics-clinical nomogram integrated with the radiomics signature, clinical data, and CT radiological features could significantly improve the differential diagnosis of Ki-67 expression status. The radiomics-clinical nomogram showed satisfactory calibration and net benefit for discriminating high and low Ki-67 expression status in PDAC.

Role of Endoscopic Ultrasound in the Management of Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is one of the common causes of cancer-associated mortality with a dismal overall prognosis which has remained virtually unchanged over decades. In the present era, the management of patients with pancreatic cancer involves a multi-disciplinary team of radiologists, gastroenterologists, surgical oncologists, medical oncologists, radiation oncologists and other specialists. The advancement of interventional endoscopy has made a significant impact in the management of pancreatic cancers. Since the inception of endoscopic ultrasound, it has evolved over the last few decades in the management of pancreatic malignancies and its role in staging and tissue acquisition is well established. There is an emerging role of endoscopic ultrasound in the treatment and palliation of unresectable pancreatic cancer. The aim of this article is to review the role of endoscopic ultrasound in diagnostic and therapeutic interventions in the current era.

MRI-guided stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy versus CT-guided percutaneous irreversible electroporation for locally advanced pancreatic cancer (CROSSFIRE): a single-centre, open-label, randomised phase 2 trial

BACKGROUND

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is an aggressive disease with a dismal prognosis. Stage III locally advanced pancreatic cancer is considered unresectable and current palliative chemotherapy regimens only modestly improve survival. Guidelines suggest chemoradiation or stereotactic ablative body radiotherapy (SABR) could be beneficial in certain circumstances. Other local treatments such as irreversible electroporation could enhance patient outcomes by extending survival while preserving quality of life. We aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of MRI-guided SABR versus CT-guided percutaneous irreversible electroporation following standard FOLFIRINOX chemotherapy.

METHODS

CROSSFIRE was an open-label, randomised phase 2 superiority trial conducted at the Amsterdam University Medical Centre (Amsterdam, Netherlands). Eligible patients were aged 18 years or older with confirmed histological and radiological stage III locally advanced pancreatic cancer. The maximum tumour diameter was 5 cm and patients had to be pretreated with three to eight cycles of FOLFIRINOX. Patients were randomly assigned (1:1) to MRI-guided SABR (five fractions of 8 Gy delivered on non-consecutive days) or CT-guided percutaneous irreversible electroporation using a computer-generated variable block randomisation model. The primary endpoint was overall survival from randomisation, assessed in the intention-to-treat population. Safety was assessed in the per-protocol population. A prespecified interim futility analysis was done after inclusion of half the original sample size, with a conditional probability of less than 0·2 resulting in halting of the study. The trial was registered at ClinicalTrials.gov, NCT02791503.

FINDINGS

Between May 1, 2016, and March 31, 2022, 68 patients were enrolled and randomly assigned to SABR (n=34) or irreversible electroporation (n=34), of whom 64 were treated according to protocol. Of the 68 participants, 36 (53%) were male and 32 (47%) were female, with a median age of 65 years (IQR 57-70). Median overall survival from randomisation was 16·1 months (95% CI 12·1-19·4) in the SABR group versus 12·5 months (10·9-17·0) in the irreversible electroporation group (hazard ratio [HR] 1·39 [95% CI 0·84-2·30]; p=0·21). The conditional probability to demonstrate superiority of either technique was 0·13; patient accrual was therefore stopped early for futility. 20 (63%) of 32 patients in the SABR group versus 19 (59%) of 32 patients in the irreversible electroporation group had adverse events (p=0·8) and five (16%) patients in the SABR group versus eight (25%) in the irreversible electroporation group had grade 3-5 adverse events (p=0·35). The most common grade 3-4 adverse events were cholangitis (two [6%] in the SABR group vs one [3%] in the irreversible electroporation group), abdominal pain (one [3%] vs two [6%]), and pancreatitis (none vs two [6%]). One (3%) patient in the SABR group and one (3%) in the irreversible electroporation group died from a treatment-related adverse event.

INTERPRETATION

CROSSFIRE did not identify a difference in overall survival or incidence of adverse events between MRI-guided SABR and CT-guided percutaneous irreversible electroporation after FOLFIRINOX. Future studies should further assess the added value of local ablative treatment over chemotherapy alone.

FUNDING

Adessium Foundation, AngioDynamics.

Diffusion-weighted imaging for determining response to neoadjuvant therapy in pancreatic cancer: a systematic review and meta-analysis

OBJECTIVES

To determine the role of diffusion-weighted imaging (DWI) for predicting response to neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) in pancreatic cancer.

MATERIALS AND METHODS

MEDLINE, EMBASE, and Cochrane Library databases were searched for studies evaluating the performance of apparent diffusion coefficient (ADC) to assess response to NAT. Data extracted included ADC pre- and post-NAT, for predicting response as defined by imaging, histopathology, or clinical reference standards. ADC values were compared with standardized mean differences. Risk of bias was assessed using the Quality Assessment of Diagnostic Studies (QUADAS-2).

RESULTS

Of 337 studies, 7 were included in the analysis (161 patients). ADC values reported for the pre- and post-NAT assessments overlapped between responders and non-responders. One study reported inability of ADC increase after NAT for distinguishing responders and non-responders. A correlation with histopathological response was reported for pre- and post-NAT ADC in 4 studies. DWI's diagnostic performance was reported to be high in three studies, with a 91.6-100% sensitivity and 62.5-94.7% specificity. Finally, heterogeneity and high risk of bias were identified across studies, affecting the domains of patient selection, index test, reference standard, and flow and timing.

CONCLUSION

DWI might be useful for determining response to NAT in pancreatic cancer. However, there are still too few studies on this matter, which are also heterogeneous and at high risk for bias. Further studies with standardized procedures for data acquisition and accurate reference standards are needed.

CLINICAL RELEVANCE STATEMENT

Diffusion-weighted MRI might be useful for assessing response to neoadjuvant therapy in pancreatic cancer. However, further studies with robust data are needed to provide specific recommendations for clinical practice.

KEY POINTS

•The role of DWI with ADC measurements for assessing response to neoadjuvant therapy in pancreatic cancer is still unclear. •Pre- and post-neoadjuvant therapy ADC values overlap between responders and non-responders. •DWI has a reported high diagnostic performance for determining response when using histopathological or clinical reference standards; however, studies are still few and at high risk for bias.

Value of preoperative biliary drainage in pancreatic head cancer patients with severe obstructive jaundice: A multicenter retrospective study

BACKGROUND

Pancreatic head cancer accompanied by obstructive jaundice is a common clinical situation. The aim of this study was to assess the impact of preoperative biliary drainage (PBD) on clinical outcomes in patients with severe obstructive jaundice.

METHODS

Patients with a bilirubin level of ≥250 μmol/L at diagnosis who underwent PBD were included. The primary endpoints and secondary endpoints were the postoperative severe complications rates. Secondary endpoints were the degree of improvement in general condition, predictors of severe postoperative complications, and the impact of PBD on patients with bilirubin levels >300 μmol/L.

RESULTS

In total, 289 patients were included, and 188 patients (65.1%) underwent PBD. The patients who met the American Society of Anesthesiologists (ASA) classification II-III stages decreased from 119 to 100 ( P = 0.047) after PBD. The overall severe complications were significantly more frequent in the direct surgery (DS) group than in the PBD group (34.7% vs. 22.9%, P = 0.031), especially the postoperative hemorrhage (6/43 [14.0%] vs. 9/35 [25.7%], P = 0.038) and intra-abdominal infection (6/43 [14.0%] vs. 10/35 [28.6%], P = 0.018). The ASA classifications II-III (odds ratio [OR]=2.89, 95% confidence interval [CI]: 1.38-4.31), P = 0.01) and DS (OR = 3.65, 95% CI: 1.45-7.08; P = 0.003) were independently associated with severe postoperative complications. The occurrence rate of severe postoperative complications in patients with a bilirubin level >300 μmol/L who underwent PBD was significantly lower than in patients who underwent DS (25.6% vs. 40.6%, P = 0.028), but the benefit of PBD was not observed in patients who had a bilirubin level between 250 and 300 μmol/L.

CONCLUSION

PBD is useful in reducing severe postoperative complications, especially in patients with bilirubin levels >300 μmol/L.

Clinical outcomes in borderline and locally advanced pancreatic cancer with the addition of low-dose-rate brachytherapy to standard of care therapy

PURPOSE

Surgical resection remains the only curative therapy for pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately, many patients have borderline or unresectable disease at diagnosis due to proximity of major abdominal vessels. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radiation are used to down-stage, however, there is a risk that there will be a positive/close surgical margin. The CivaSheet is a low-dose-rate (LDR) brachytherapy device placed at the time of surgery to target the area of highest risk of margin positivity. The purpose of this study is to assess the clinical value of brachytherapy in addition to standard-of-care therapy in pancreatic therapy.

METHODS AND MATERIALS

Between 2017 and 2022 patients with borderline and locally advanced pancreatic cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemotherapy and radiation followed by surgical resection were included. There were 2 cohorts of patients: (1) Those who had the LDR brachytherapy device placed at the time of surgery and (2) those who did not. Sixteen of 19 (84%) patients who had brachytherapy were enrolled in a prospective clinical trial (NCT02843945). Patients were matched for comorbidities, cancer staging, and treatment details. The primary outcome was progression-free survival (PFS).

RESULTS

Thirty-five patients were included in this analysis, 19 in the LDR brachytherapy group and 16 in the comparison cohort. The 2-year PFS was 21% vs. 0% (p = 0.11), 2-year OS was 26% vs. 13% (p = 0.43), and the pancreatic cancer cause-specific survival was 84% vs. 56% (p = 0.13) in favor of the brachytherapy patients.

CONCLUSIONS

Use of LDR brachytherapy at the time of resection shows a trend towards improved progression free and overall survival for patients with borderline or locally advanced pancreatic cancer treated with neoadjuvant chemoradiation.

Risk factors of post-operative diarrhoea in patients with pancreatic cancer after neoadjuvant chemotherapy: A retrospective cohort study

BACKGROUND

Post-operative diarrhoea is a common adverse event after pancreatic surgery. While the risk factors for this condition have been identified, the increasing trend of administering chemotherapy before surgery might change these factors. This study aimed to identify the risk factors of post-operative diarrhoea in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

DESIGN

A retrospective cohort study.

METHODS

Patients who underwent neoadjuvant chemotherapy and pancreatectomy because of PDAC between 2021 and 2023 were included. The preoperative characteristics of, operative details of and post-operative outcomes in patients with and without post-operative diarrhoea were collected and compared. The independent risk factors of post-operative diarrhoea were identified using logistic regression analysis. STROBE checklist was used.

RESULTS

Post-operative diarrhoea occurred in 65 out of 145 (44.8%) patients during hospitalization. Elevated white blood cell count, advanced tumour stage, and late abdominal drain removal were independent risk factors for post-operative diarrhoea (p < .001, p = .006 and p = .009, respectively).

CONCLUSIONS

Some perioperative factors influence post-operative diarrhoea in patients who undergo neoadjuvant chemotherapy. More attention should be paid to patients at a higher risk of post-operative diarrhoea, with an emphasis on high-quality management for these patients.

Salvage Ablative Radiotherapy for Isolated Local Recurrence of Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma following Definitive Surgery

Introduction: The rate of isolated locoregional recurrence after surgery for pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC) approaches 25%. Ablative radiation therapy (A-RT) has improved outcomes for locally advanced disease in the primary setting. We sought to evaluate the outcomes of salvage A-RT for isolated locoregional recurrence and examine the relationship between subsequent patterns of failure, radiation dose, and treatment volume. Methods: We conducted a retrospective analysis of all consecutive participants who underwent A-RT for an isolated locoregional recurrence of PDAC after prior surgery at our institution between 2016 and 2021. Treatment consisted of ablative dose (BED10 98-100 Gy) to the gross disease with an additional prophylactic low dose (BED10 < 50 Gy), with the elective volume covering a 1.5 cm isotropic expansion around the gross disease and the circumference of the involved vessels. Local and locoregional failure (LF and LRF, respectively) estimated by the cumulative incidence function with competing risks, distant metastasis-free and overall survival (DMFS and OS, respectively) estimated by the Kaplan-Meier method, and toxicities scored by CTCAE v5.0 are reported. Location of recurrence was mapped to the dose region on the initial radiation plan. Results: Among 65 participants (of whom two had two A-RT courses), the median age was 67 (range 37-87) years, 36 (55%) were male, and 53 (82%) had undergone pancreaticoduodenectomy with a median disease-free interval to locoregional recurrence of 16 (range, 6-71) months. Twenty-seven participants (42%) received chemotherapy prior to A-RT. With a median follow-up of 35 months (95%CI, 26-56 months) from diagnosis of recurrence, 24-month OS and DMFS were 57% (95%CI, 46-72%) and 22% (95%CI, 14-37%), respectively, while 24-month cumulative incidence of in-field LF and total LRF were 28% (95%CI, 17-40%) and 36% (95%CI 24-48%), respectively. First failure after A-RT was distant in 35 patients (53.8%), locoregional in 12 patients (18.5%), and synchronous distant and locoregional in 10 patients (15.4%). Most locoregional failures occurred in elective low-dose volumes. Acute and chronic grade 3-4 toxicities were noted in 1 (1.5%) and 5 patients (7.5%), respectively. Conclusions: Salvage A-RT achieves favorable OS and local control outcomes in participants with an isolated locoregional recurrence of PDAC after surgical resection. Consideration should be given to extending high-dose fields to include adjacent segments of at-risk vessels beyond direct contact with the gross disease.

Comprehensive Genomic Studies on the Cell Blocks of Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest malignancies, characterized by late-stage diagnosis and limited treatment options. Comprehensive genomic profiling plays an important role in understanding the molecular mechanisms underlying the disease and identifying potential therapeutic targets. Cell blocks (CBs), derived from EUS-FNA, have become valuable resources for diagnosis and genomic analysis. We examine the molecular profile of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) using specimens obtained from CB EUS-FNA, across a large gene panel, within the framework of next-generation sequencing (NGS). Our findings revealed that over half (55%) of PDAC CB cases provided adequate nucleic acid for next-generation sequencing, with tumor cell percentages averaging above 30%. Despite challenges such as low DNA quantification and degraded DNA, sequencing reads showed satisfactory quality control statistics, demonstrating the detection of genomic alterations. Most cases (84.6%) harbored at least one gene variant, including clinically significant gene mutation variants such as KRAS, TP53, and CDKN2A. Even at minimal concentrations, as long as the extracted DNA is of high quality, performing comprehensive molecular profiling on PDAC samples from cell blocks has remained feasible. This strategy has yielded valuable information about the diagnosis, genetic landscape, and potential therapeutic targets, aligning closely with a precision cytopathology approach.

Knowledge mapping and research trends of exosomes in pancreatic cancer: a bibliometric analysis and review (2013-2023)

OBJECTIVE

This review aims to provide a quantitative and qualitative bibliometric analysis of literature from 2013 to 2023 on the role of exosomes in PC, with the goal of identifying current trends and predicting future hotspots.

METHODS

We retrieved relevant publications concerning exosomes in PC, published between 2013 and 2023, from the Web of Science Core Collection. Bibliometric analyses were conducted using VOSviewer(1.6.19), CiteSpace(6.2.R4), and Microsoft Excel (2019).

RESULTS

A total of 624 papers were analyzed, authored by 4017 researchers from 55 countries/regions and 855 institutions, published in 258 academic journals. China (n=285, 34.42%) and the United States (n=183, 24.87%) were the most frequent contributors and collaborated closely. However, publications from China had a relatively low average number of citations (41.45 times per paper). The output of Shanghai Jiao Tong University ranked first, with 28 papers (accounting for 4.5% of the total publications). Cancers (n=31, 4.9%); published the most papers in this field. Researcher Margot Zoeller published the most papers (n=12) on this topic. Research hotspots mainly focused on the mechanisms of exosomes in PC onset and progression, the role of exosomes in PC early diagnosis and prognosis, exosomes promote the development of PC chemoresistance, and potential applications of exosomes as drug carriers for PC therapies. We observed a shift in research trends, from mechanistic studies toward clinical trials, suggesting that clinical applications will be the focus of future attention. Emerging topics were pancreatic stellate cells, diagnostic biomarkers, mesenchymal stem cells, extracellular vesicles.

CONCLUSION

Our scientometric and visual analysis provides a comprehensive overview of the literature on the role of exosomes in PC published during 2013-2023. This review identifies the frontiers and future directions in this area over the past decade, and is expected to provide a useful reference for researchers in this field.

Rim Enhancement on Contrast-Enhanced CT as a Predictor of Prognosis in Patients with Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma

This study investigated the utility of imaging features, such as rim enhancement on contrast-enhanced CT (CECT), in predicting the prognosis of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). This retrospective study included 158 patients (84 men; mean age, 68 years) with pathologically confirmed PDAC. The following imaging features were evaluated on CECT by two radiologists: tumor size, tumor attenuation, and the presence of rim enhancement. Cox proportional hazards analysis was performed to identify the imaging and clinicopathological features for predicting disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS). Pathological features were compared with the presence of rim enhancement. Among the 158 patients, 106 (67%) underwent curative surgery (surgery group) and 52 (33%) received conservative treatment (non-surgery group). Rim enhancement was observed more frequently in the non-surgery group than in the surgery group (44% vs. 20%; p < 0.001). Rim enhancement showed significant associations with shorter DFS and OS in the surgery group (hazard ratios (HRs), 3.03 and 2.99; p < 0.001 and p = 0.003, respectively), whereas tumor size showed significant associations with shorter OS (HR per 1 mm increase, 1.08; p < 0.001). PDACs with rim enhancement showed significant associations with higher histological tumor grades (p < 0.001). PDAC with rim enhancement on CECT could predict poorer prognosis and more aggressive tumor grades.

The Doppler Perfusion Index of the Liver and the Underlying Duplex Sonography of Visceral Vessels-A Systematic and Comprehensive Evaluation of Reproducibility

Prior to the curative resection of colorectal carcinoma (CRC) or pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the exclusion of hepatic metastasis using cross-sectional imaging is mandatory. The Doppler perfusion index (DPI) of the liver is a promising method for detecting occult liver metastases, but the underlying visceral duplex sonography is critically viewed in terms of its reproducibility. The aim of this study was to investigate systematically the reproducibility of the measured variables, the calculated blood flow, and the DPI. Between February and September 2023, two examinations were performed on 80 subjects within a period of 0-30 days and at two previously defined quality levels, aligned to the German standards of the DEGUM. Correlation analyses were carried out using Pearson's correlation coefficient (PCC) and the intraclass correlation coefficient (ICC). The diameters, blood flow, and DPI showed a high degree of agreement (PCC of 0.9 and ICC of 0.9 for AHP). Provided that a precise standard of procedure is adhered to, the Doppler examination of AHC, AHP, and PV yields very reproducible blood flows and DPI, which is a prerequisite for a comprehensive investigation of its prognostic value for the prediction of metachronous hepatic metastasis in the context of curatively treated CRC or PDAC.

Quarter-Century PET/Computed Tomography Transformation of Oncology: Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Cancer

[18F] Fluorodeoxyglucose (18F-FDG) PET/CT can improve the staging accuracy and clinical management of patients with hepatobiliary and pancreatic cancers, by detection of unsuspected metastases. 18F-FDG PET/CT metabolic parameters are valuable in predicting treatment response and survival. Metabolic response on 18F-FDG PET/CT can predict preoperative pathologic response to neoadjuvant therapy in patients with pancreatic cancer and determine prognosis. Several novel non-FDG tracers, such as 68Ga prostate-specific membrane antigen (PSMA) and 68Ga-fibroblast activation protein inhibitor (FAPI) PET/CT, show promise for imaging hepatobiliary and pancreatic cancers with potential for radioligand therapy.

Outcomes of Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy for Invasive Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasm Compared with de Novo Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND

The management of invasive intraductal papillary mucinous cystic neoplasm (I-IPMN) does not differ from de novo pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC); however, I-IPMNs are debated to have better prognosis. Despite being managed similarly to PDAC, no data are available on the response of I-IPMN to neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

METHODS

All patients undergoing pancreatic resection for a pancreatic adenocarcinoma from 2011 to 2022 were included. The PDAC and I-IPMN cohorts were compared to evaluate response to neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) and overall survival (OS).

RESULTS

This study included 1052 PDAC patients and 105 I-IPMN patients. NAT was performed in 25% of I-IPMN patients and 65% of PDAC patients. I-IPMN showed a similar pattern of pathological response to NAT compared with PDAC (p = 0.231). Furthermore, positron emission tomography (PET) response (71% vs. 61%; p = 0.447), CA19.9 normalization (85% vs. 76%, p = 0.290), and radiological response (32% vs. 37%, p = 0.628) were comparable between I-IPMN and PDAC. A significantly higher OS and disease-free survival (DFS) of I-IPMN was denoted by Kaplan-Meier analysis, with a p-value of < 0.001 in both plots. In a multivariate analysis, I-IPMN histology was independently associated with lower risk of recurrence and death.

CONCLUSIONS

I-IPMN patients have a longer OS and DFS after surgical treatment when compared with PDAC patients. The more favorable oncologic outcome of I-IPMNs does not seem to be related to early detection, as I-IPMN histological subclass is independently associated with a lower risk of disease recurrence. Moreover, neoadjuvant effect on I-IPMN was non-inferior to PDAC in terms of pathological, CA19.9, PET, and radiological response and thus can be considered in selected patients.

Performance and safety of diagnostic EUS FNA/FNB and therapeutic ERCP in patients with borderline resectable and locally advanced pancreatic cancer - results from a population-based, prospective cohort study

Objective: Endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration/biopsy (EUS FNA/FNB) and potential endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) for biliary decompression are indicated in patients with pancreatic cancer before initation of primary chemotherapy. This study aims to investigate the performance and safety of these two procedures in patients with borderline resectable (BRPC) or locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC). Methods: Endoscopy and pathology reports, and hospital records of consecutive patients with a radiological diagnosis of BRPC/LAPC included in a population based, protocol-driven study (NORPACT-2) were reviewed. Results: Of 251 patients, 223 (88.9%) underwent EUS-FNA/FNB, and 133 (53%) underwent ERCP. Repeated EUS attempts were performed in 33 (14.8%), eight (3.6%), and four (1.8%) patients. FNA was performed in 155 procedures, FNB in 30, and combined EUS-FNA/FNB in 83. Diagnostic accuracy was 86.1% for first EUS-FNA/FNB. The cumulative diagnostic accuracy for all attempts was 96%. False positive rate for malignancy was 0.9%. Of a total of 149 ERCP procedures, 122 (81.9%) were successful, and 27 (18.1%) were unsuccessful. Success rate of first ERCP attempt was 80.5% (107/133). Sixteen patients (12%) underwent a second attempt with a success rate of 93.8% (15 of 16). Combined EUS and ERCP was performed in 41 patients. Complications occurred in eight procedures (3%) after EUS-FNA/FNB, 23 procedures (15.3%) after ERCP, and four (9.8%) patients after combined EUS-FNA/FNB and ERCP. Conclusion: EUS-FNA/FNB and ERCP with biliary stenting in patients with BRPC/LAPC demonstrated acceptable performance and safety. Repeat procedures were performed with high success rates. Same session EUS-FNA/FNB and ERCP for biliary decompression is safe.

Splenic vein tumor thrombosis is a major prognostic factor in distal pancreatic adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND

The prognostic value of splenic vessel involvement in distal pancreatic adenocarcinoma remains controversial. The aim of the study was to assess its prognostic relevance in a large multicenter cohort.

METHODS

Patients who underwent pancreatosplenectomy for distal pancreatic adenocarcinoma were identified from 5 pancreatic surgical centers. A pathology review of the surgical specimens was performed to assess splenic vessel involvement, defined as invasion of the vessel's adventitia or deeper, and confirm the presence of splenic vein tumor thrombosis. Prognostic factors associated with overall and relapse-free survival were evaluated.

RESULTS

149 patients underwent upfront surgery. Splenic vascular involvement was observed in 69 of them (46.3%). A parietal infiltration of the splenic artery or splenic vein was observed in 26 (17.5%) and 49 patients (32.8%), respectively. A pathologic tumor thrombosis of the splenic vein was identified in 22 patients (14.8%) and associated with larger tumors (>20 mm) (P = .023), more perineural (P = .017), and lymphovascular (P = .002) invasion, and more positive lymph node (P = .001). After a median follow-up of 50.8 months (95% confidence interval: 44.3-57.3), the cumulative 5-year overall and relapse-free survival were 46.2% and 33%, respectively. In multivariate analysis, in addition to lymph node metastasis (hazard ratio = 1.8; 95% confidence interval [1.1-3.1]; P = .023) and perineural invasion (hazard ratio = 3.5; 95% confidence interval [1.3-9.7]; P = .016), presence of splenic vein tumor thrombosis was the only splenic vascular involvement that affected independently the overall survival (HR = 2.3; 95% confidence interval [ 1.3-4.3]; P = .006).

CONCLUSION

In resectable distal pancreatic adenocarcinoma, a pathologic tumor thrombosis of the splenic vein is an independent prognostic factor of overall survival. To define the perioperative oncological strategy, a preoperative evaluation of splenic vessel involvement and thrombosis is needed.

Automated peripancreatic vessel segmentation and labeling based on iterative trunk growth and weakly supervised mechanism

Peripancreatic vessel segmentation and anatomical labeling are pivotal aspects in aiding surgical planning and prognosis for patients with pancreatic tumors. Nevertheless, prevailing techniques often fall short in achieving satisfactory segmentation performance for the peripancreatic vein (PPV), leading to predictions characterized by poor integrity and connectivity. Besides, unsupervised labeling algorithms usually cannot deal with complex anatomical variation while fully supervised methods require a large number of voxel-wise annotations for training, which is very labor-intensive and time-consuming. To address these two problems, we propose an Automated Peripancreatic vEssel Segmentation and lAbeling (APESA) framework, to not only highly improve the segmentation performance for PPV, but also efficiently identify the peripancreatic artery (PPA) branches. There are two core modules in our proposed APESA framework: iterative trunk growth module (ITGM) for vein segmentation and weakly supervised labeling mechanism (WSLM) for artery labeling. The ITGM is composed of a series of iterative submodules, each of which chooses the largest connected component of the previous PPV segmentation as the trunk of a tree structure, seeks for the potential missing branches around the trunk by our designed branch proposal network, and facilitates trunk growth under the connectivity constraint. The WSLM incorporates the rule-based pseudo label generation with less expert participation, an anatomical labeling network to learn the branch distribution voxel by voxel, and adaptive radius-based postprocessing to refine the branch structures of the labeling predictions. Our achieved Dice of 94.01% for PPV segmentation on our collected dataset represents an approximately 10% accuracy improvement compared to state-of-the-art methods. Additionally, we attained a Dice of 97.01% for PPA segmentation and competitive labeling performance for PPA labeling compared to prior works. Our source codes will be publicly available at https://github.com/ZouLiwen-1999/APESA.

Genetic Signature of Human Pancreatic Cancer and Personalized Targeting

Pancreatic cancer is a highly lethal disease with a 5-year survival rate of around 11-12%. Surgery, being the treatment of choice, is only possible in 20% of symptomatic patients. The main reason is that when it becomes symptomatic, IT IS the tumor is usually locally advanced and/or has metastasized to distant organs; thus, early diagnosis is infrequent. The lack of specific early symptoms is an important cause of late diagnosis. Unfortunately, diagnostic tumor markers become positive at a late stage, and there is a lack of early-stage markers. Surgical and non-surgical cases are treated with neoadjuvant and/or adjuvant chemotherapy, and the results are usually poor. However, personalized targeted therapy directed against tumor drivers may improve this situation. Until recently, many pancreatic tumor driver genes/proteins were considered untargetable. Chemical and physical characteristics of mutated KRAS are a formidable challenge to overcome. This situation is slowly changing. For the first time, there are candidate drugs that can target the main driver gene of pancreatic cancer: KRAS. Indeed, KRAS inhibition has been clinically achieved in lung cancer and, at the pre-clinical level, in pancreatic cancer as well. This will probably change the very poor outlook for this disease. This paper reviews the genetic characteristics of sporadic and hereditary predisposition to pancreatic cancer and the possibilities of a personalized treatment according to the genetic signature.

Development of Clinical Radiomics-Based Models to Predict Survival Outcome in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma: A Multicenter Retrospective Study

PURPOSE

This multicenter retrospective study aims to identify reliable clinical and radiomic features to build machine learning models that predict progression-free survival (PFS) and overall survival (OS) in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients.

METHODS

Between 2010 and 2020 pre-treatment contrast-enhanced CT scans of 287 pathology-confirmed PDAC patients from two sites of the Hopital Universitaire de Bruxelles (HUB) and from 47 hospitals within the HUB network were retrospectively analysed. Demographic, clinical, and survival data were also collected. Gross tumour volume (GTV) and non-tumoral pancreas (RPV) were semi-manually segmented and radiomics features were extracted. Patients from two HUB sites comprised the training dataset, while those from the remaining 47 hospitals of the HUB network constituted the testing dataset. A three-step method was used for feature selection. Based on the GradientBoostingSurvivalAnalysis classifier, different machine learning models were trained and tested to predict OS and PFS. Model performances were assessed using the C-index and Kaplan-Meier curves. SHAP analysis was applied to allow for post hoc interpretability.

RESULTS

A total of 107 radiomics features were extracted from each of the GTV and RPV. Fourteen subgroups of features were selected: clinical, GTV, RPV, clinical & GTV, clinical & GTV & RPV, GTV-volume and RPV-volume both for OS and PFS. Subsequently, 14 Gradient Boosting Survival Analysis models were trained and tested. In the testing dataset, the clinical & GTV model demonstrated the highest performance for OS (C-index: 0.72) among all other models, while for PFS, the clinical model exhibited a superior performance (C-index: 0.70).

CONCLUSIONS

An integrated approach, combining clinical and radiomics features, excels in predicting OS, whereas clinical features demonstrate strong performance in PFS prediction.

Results of a Randomized, Double-Blind, Placebo-Controlled, Phase 1b/2 Trial of Nabpaclitaxel + Gemcitabine ± Olaratumab in Treatment-Naïve Participants with Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer

The efficacy and safety of olaratumab plus nabpaclitaxel and gemcitabine in treatment-naïve participants with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma was evaluated. An initial phase 1b dose-escalation trial was conducted to determine the olaratumab dose for the phase 2 trial, a randomized, double-blind, placebo-controlled trial to compare overall survival (OS) in the olaratumab arm vs. placebo arms. In phase 1b, 22 participants received olaratumab at doses of 15 and 20 mg/kg with a fixed dose of nabpaclitaxel and gemcitabine. In phase 2, 159 participants were randomized to receive olaratumab 20 mg/kg in cycle 1 followed by 15 mg/kg in the subsequent cycles (n = 81) or the placebo (n = 78) on days 1, 8, and 15 of a 28-day cycle, plus nabpaclitaxel and gemcitabine. The primary objective of the trial was not met, with a median OS of 9.1 vs. 10.8 months (hazard ratio [HR] = 1.05; 95% confidence interval [CI]: 0.728, 1.527; p = 0.79) and the median progression-free survival (PFS) was 5.5 vs. 6.4 months (HR = 1.19; 95% CI: 0.806, 1.764; p = 0.38), in the olaratumab vs. placebo arms, respectively. The most common treatment-emergent adverse event of any grade across both arms was fatigue. Olaratumab plus chemotherapy failed to improve the OS or PFS in participants with metastatic PDAC. There were no new safety signals.

Challenging anticoagulation therapy for multiple primary malignant tumors combined with thrombosis: A case report and review of literature

BACKGROUND

Venous thromboembolism significantly contributes to patient deterioration and mortality. Management of its etiology and anticoagulation treatment is intricate, necessitating a comprehensive consideration of various factors, including the bleeding risk, dosage, specific anticoagulant medications, and duration of therapy. Herein, a case of lower extremity thrombosis with multiple primary malignant tumors and high risk of bleeding was reviewed to summarize the shortcomings of treatment and prudent anticoagulation experience.

CASE SUMMARY

An 83-year-old female patient was admitted to the hospital due to a 2-wk history of left lower extremity edema that had worsened over 2 d. Considering her medical history and relevant post-admission investigations, it was determined that the development of left lower extremity venous thrombosis and pulmonary embolism in this case could be attributed to a combination of factors, including multiple primary malignant tumors, iliac venous compression syndrome, previous novel coronavirus infection, and inadequate treatment for prior thrombotic events. However, the selection of appropriate anticoagulant medications, determination of optimal drug dosages, and establishment of an appropriate duration of anticoagulation therapy were important because of concurrent thrombocytopenia, decreased quantitative fibrinogen levels, and renal insufficiency.

CONCLUSION

Anticoagulant prophylaxis should be promptly initiated in cases of high-risk thrombosis. Individualized anticoagulation therapy is required for complex thrombosis.

Clinicopathologic characteristics and treatment outcomes of pancreatic cancer patients at a tertiary referral hospital in Kenya

The global incidence of pancreatic cancer (PC) continues to steadily increase whereas its prognosis remains poor. Previous studies have suggested worse outcomes among individuals of African descent. The characteristics of patients with PC in Kenya, and their contemporary management and survival outcomes remain largely unknown. This study aimed to describe the clinical and pathologic characteristics, management, and outcomes of patients diagnosed with PC at Kenyatta National Hospital (KNH), a tertiary referral hospital in Kenya. Records of 242 patients diagnosed with PC at KNH between 1st January 2014 and 30th September 2021 were assessed in this retrospective cohort study. Data on their clinical, histopathologic, and treatment characteristics was presented as mean (± standard deviation) and/or median (interquartile range) for continuous variables and frequency (percentage) for categorical variables. Kaplan-Meier and Cox proportional hazard ratios were used for survival analysis. PC occurred in a young population, the median age being 58.5 years (inter-quartile range 35-88). The majority of tumours (54%) were metastatic at diagnosis, while 28% and 14% were stage III and stage I/II, respectively. Surgical resections with curative intent were performed on 7% overall and 44% of stage I/II cases. The majority of patients with stage I/II disease (52.9%) received chemotherapy whereas the majority with stage III and IV disease received the best supportive care only (62.7% and 64.9%, respectively). Patients who underwent surgical resection (HR for mortality 0.20, 95% CI 0.05-0.83, p = 0.021) and chemotherapy (HR for mortality 0.15, 95% CI 0.08-0.29, p < 0.001) had significantly improved survival, reflecting a more favourable stage of the disease more amenable to aggressive therapies. The median survival time was 3 months and the 1-year survival rate was 32%.

Identification of breath volatile organic compounds to distinguish pancreatic adenocarcinoma, pancreatic cystic neoplasm, and patients without pancreatic lesions

BACKGROUND

Volatile organic compounds (VOCs) are a promising potential biomarker that may be able to identify the presence of cancers.

AIM

To identify exhaled breath VOCs that distinguish pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) from intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) and healthy volunteers.

METHODS

We collected exhaled breath from histologically proven PDAC patients, radiological diagnosis IPMN, and healthy volunteers using the ReCIVA® device between 10/2021-11/2022. VOCs were identified by thermal desorption-gas chromatography/field-asymmetric ion mobility spectrometry and compared between groups.

RESULTS

A total of 156 participants (44% male, mean age 62.6 ± 10.6) were enrolled (54 PDAC, 42 IPMN, and 60 controls). Among the nine VOCs identified, two VOCs that showed differences between groups were dimethyl sulfide [0.73 vs 0.74 vs 0.94 arbitrary units (AU), respectively; P = 0.008] and acetone dimers (3.95 vs 4.49 vs 5.19 AU, respectively; P < 0.001). After adjusting for the imbalance parameters, PDAC showed higher dimethyl sulfide levels than the control and IPMN groups, with adjusted odds ratio (aOR) of 6.98 (95%CI: 1.15-42.17) and 4.56 (1.03-20.20), respectively (P < 0.05 both). Acetone dimer levels were also higher in PDAC compared to controls and IPMN (aOR: 5.12 (1.80-14.57) and aOR: 3.35 (1.47-7.63), respectively (P < 0.05 both). Acetone dimer, but not dimethyl sulfide, performed better than CA19-9 in PDAC diagnosis (AUROC 0.910 vs 0.796). The AUROC of acetone dimer increased to 0.936 when combined with CA19-9, which was better than CA19-9 alone (P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

Dimethyl sulfide and acetone dimer are VOCs that potentially distinguish PDAC from IPMN and healthy participants. Additional prospective studies are required to validate these findings.

Pancreatic Myeloid Sarcoma Causing Obstructive Jaundice: A Case Report and Literature Review

Myeloid sarcoma (MS) is an extramedullary manifestation of acute myeloid leukemia (AML) and commonly occurs in sites such as the lymph nodes, skin, soft tissues, and bone. It more rarely manifests in the pancreas, with less than 20 cases reported in the literature since 1987. Despite its rarity, MS should be considered in the differential diagnosis of a soft tissue mass causing obstructive jaundice, especially if the patient has a known hematologic disease. Isolated cases of pancreatic MS have been known to progress to AML; therefore, it is crucial to differentiate MS from more common diagnoses, such as pancreatic cancer or pancreatitis. This is a case of a 70-year-old male with symptomatic obstructive jaundice secondary to pancreatic MS, ultimately requiring endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) and endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) for diagnosis and management. Also included is a comprehensive review of previous case reports with similar clinical presentations, management, and treatment of pancreatic MS.