Early liver metastases in resectable periampullary cancer: Incidence and risk factors

Robotic versus laparoscopic hepatectomy for malignancy: A systematic review and meta-analysis

The aim of this study was to compare the clinical safety and efficacy of robotic hepatectomy (RH) versus conventional laparoscopic hepatectomy (LH) for malignancy using meta-analysis. A systematic literature search was performed using PubMed, EMBASE, Medline and the Cochrane Library databases up to September 2020 for studies, which limited to comparative articles of RH or LH for malignant tumors. Stata14.0 was performed in the meta-analysis. Six studies with a total of 1093 patients (345 RH and 748 LH) were eligible for inclusion. Operative time, tumor size, open procedure rate and the proportion of right hepatectomy were found to be significantly different between RH and LH in the pooled analysis (P < 0.05). Compared to LH, RH was associated with longer operative time, larger tumor size, lower open procedure rate and more common use for right hepatectomy. On the other hand, there was no difference in the operative time, estimated blood loss (EBL), blood transfusion rate, hospital stay, R0 resection rate, complications, resection margin, left lateral sectionectomy and left hepatectomy (P > 0.05). For malignant tumors that require hepatectomy, robotic approaches have demonstrated similar safety and feasibility to laparoscopy, with lower open procedure rate, were suitable for larger tumor size, and have a high right hepatectomy utilization rate. These results still need to be confirmed by multicenter, high-quality randomized controlled studies.

Influence of non-jaundice stage at diagnosis on clinicopathological features and long-term survival of patients with periampullary carcinomas

The effect of non-jaundice stage at diagnosis on clinicopathological features and prognosis of patients with periampullary carcinomas (PACs) remains uncertain.The 504 patients who were pathologically diagnosed with PACs between 2012 and 2017 were retrospective analyzed. Kaplan-Meier method was used to estimate survival and log-rank tests were used for comparisons between groups.Patients were divided into the non-jaundice group and the jaundice group according to serum total bilirubin (3 mg/dL) at diagnosis. By comparison with the jaundice group, more patients of the non-jaundice group manifested abdominal pain with longer duration. The degree of deterioration of complete blood count, liver function and CA19-9 in the non-jaundice group was significantly lower (P < .001). The non-jaundice group had larger tumor size (P = .001), more duodenal carcinoma and pancreatic carcinoma (P < .001), lower resection rate (P = .001) and less pancreatic and perineural invasion (P = .017, P = .002). The I stage was significantly more common in the non-jaundice group (P < .001). The cumulative 5-year survival of the non-jaundice group was significantly higher (P = .032). Multivariate analysis for all patients demonstrated that CEA level, cell differentiation, chemotherapy, and recurrence were independent prognostic factors.Patients with PACs in a non-jaundice stage at diagnosis showed more favorable clinicopathological features and long-term survival than such patients with jaundice.

Surgical resection of liver metastasis in pancreatic and periampullary carcinoma

INTRODUCTION

Once liver metastases in pancreatic and periampullary carcinoma are diagnosed, guidelines do not recommend resection of the primary tumor. In this stage of the disease, therapeutic regimes with chemotherapy are the standard treatment. However, it is unclear whether combinations of extensive surgery and novel chemotherapy treatments confer a survival benefit in selected patients.

EVIDENCE ACQUISITION

We provide a systematic review about liver metastases in pancreatic and periampullary carcinoma treated by surgery utilizing EMBASE, Medline/PubMed, Cochrane and Scopus databases according to PRISMA guidelines.

EVIDENCE SYNTHESIS

In pancreatic and periampullary carcinoma, the number of lesions that can be resected includes a mean or median of 1-3; the size of the lesions should not exceed 3 cm and the most frequent surgical technique used were wedge or atypical resections. Overall morbidity and mortality after liver resection from pancreatic tumors were 0-68% and 0-9.1%, respectively, and from periampullary carcinomas were 0-82% and 0-21%, respectively. Considering both types of carcinomas, the rate of recurrence was up to 91%. Median overall survival ranged from 5.5 to 16.6 months for liver metastases from pancreas carcinoma, and from 5 to 23 months for periampullary carcinoma, with better prognosis for duodenal carcinomas.

CONCLUSIONS

Perioperative chemotherapy is the cornerstone of treatment in patients with liver metastasis from pancreatic and periampullary carcinoma. Liver resection from early liver metastases could be acceptable in selected patients with oligometastatic disease and small single lesions taking into account the individual risk of complications.