Early-onset pancreatic cancer: an institutional series evaluating end-of-life care

Early-onset pancreatic cancer: A national cancer registry study from the Czech Republic and review of the literature

BACKGROUND

The aim of this study was to compare trends in mortality and incidence, clinicopathological features and survival of patients diagnosed with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma under 50 years of age (early-onset pancreatic cancer [EOPC]) with patients diagnosed over 50 years of age (late-onset pancreatic cancer [LOPC]).

METHODS

The national oncological registry of the Czech Republic was reviewed to identify all patients with histologically confirmed pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma diagnosed between the years 1985 and 2015. Incidence, mortality, clinicopathological and survival data were analyzed and compared between patients with EOPC and LOPC.

RESULTS

From a total of 18 888 patients included in the study, 1324 patients were under the age of 50 years (7.0%). The average annual percentage changes (AAPC) in incidence of all patients with EOPC was -1.0%. The APPC for male patients with EOPC was -2.0% and for female patients was +0.6%. The AAPC in incidence for LOPC was +1.3%. There were no differences in tumor stage, grade or location between EOPC and LOPC. Young patients were more frequently male (64.4% vs. 52.9%), more frequently underwent treatment and had better overall survival. The median survival interval for EOPC was 5.9 months and for LOPC was 4.5 months (p < .001).

CONCLUSIONS

The clinicopathological features of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma were similar in patients under and over the age of 50 years. Patients with EOPC survived longer than patients with LOPC. Continued efforts should be made to diagnose early and treat young patients aggressively.

Lymph node ratio is a superior predictor in surgically treated early-onset pancreatic cancer

Background

The prognostic performance of four lymph node classifications, the 8th American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) Tumor Node Metastasis (TNM) N stage, lymph node ratio (LNR), log odds of positive lymph nodes (LODDS), and examined lymph nodes (ELN) in early-onset pancreatic cancer (EOPC) remains unclear.

Methods

The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database was searched for patients with EOPC from 2004 to 2016. 1048 patients were randomly divided into training (n = 733) and validation sets (n = 315). The predictive abilities of the four lymph node staging systems were compared using the Akaike information criteria (AIC), receiver operating characteristic area under the curve (AUC), and C-index. Multivariate Cox analysis was performed to identify independent risk factors. A nomogram based on lymph node classification with the strongest predictive ability was established. The nomogram’s precision was verified by the C-index, calibration curves, and AUC. Kaplan–Meier analysis and log-rank tests were used to compare differences in survival at each stage of the nomogram.

Results

Compared with the 8th N stage, LODDS, and ELN, LNR had the highest C-index and AUC and the lowest AIC. Multivariate analysis showed that N stage, LODDS, LNR were independent risk factors associated with cancer specific survival (CSS), but not ELN. In the training set, the AUC values for the 1-, 3-, and 5-year CSS of the nomogram were 0.663, 0.728, and 0.760, respectively and similar results were observed in the validation set. In addition, Kaplan–Meier survival analysis showed that the nomogram was also an important factor in the risk stratification of EOPC.

Conclusion

We analyzed the predictive power of the four lymph node staging systems and found that LNR had the strongest predictive ability. Furthermore, the novel nomogram prognostic staging mode based on LNR was also an important factor in the risk stratification of EOPC.