Venous resection for pancreatic cancer, a safe and feasible option? A review and meta

Background: In pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patients with suspected venous infiltration, a R0 resection is most of the time not possible without venous resection (VR). To investigate this special kind of patients, this meta-analysis was conducted to compare mortality, morbidity and long-term survival of pancreatic resections with (VR+) and without venous resection (VR-). Methods: A systematic search was performed in Embase, Pubmed and Web of Science. Studies which compared over twenty patients with VR + to VR-for PDAC with >= 1 year follow up were included. Articles including arterial resections were excluded. Statistical analysis was performed with the random effect Mantel-Haenszel test and inversed variance method. Individual patient data was compared with the logrank test. Results: Following a review of 6403 papers by title and abstract and 166 by full text, a meta-analysis was conducted of 32 studies describing 2216 VR+ and 5380 VR-. There was significantly more postpancreatectomy hemorrhage (6.5% vs. 5.6%), R1 resections (36.7% vs. 28.6%), N1 resections (70.3% vs. 66.8%) and tumors were significantly larger (34.6 mm vs. 32.8 mm) in patients with VR+. Of all VR + patients, 64.6% had true pathological venous infiltration. The 90-day mortality, individual patient data for overall survival and pooled multivariate hazard ratio for overall survival were similar. Conclusion: VR is a safe and feasible option in patients with pancreatic cancer and suspicion of venous involvement, since VR during pancreatic surgery has comparable overall survival and complication rates. (c) 2022 Published by Elsevier B.V. on behalf of IAP and EPC.

Automated summary

This meta-analysis compared the mortality, morbidity, and long-term survival of pancreatic resections with and without venous resection in patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. The results showed that patients undergoing venous resection had a higher risk of postoperative hemorrhage, incomplete resection, lymph node metastasis, and larger tumors. However, overall survival and complication rates were comparable between the two groups. This suggests that venous resection is a safe and feasible option for patients with suspected venous involvement in pancreatic cancer.