Survival after pancreatectomy with major arterial resection and reconstruction

Absence of major arterial tumor involvement has generally been regarded as a major criterion for resectability of pancreatic tumors. We hypothesize that resection of a tumor-involved hepatic artery (HA) or celiac artery (CA) with reconstruction may offer a survival benefit to patients whose tumors were traditionally regarded as unresectable.

All patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma treated between 1996 and 2007 were reviewed. Patients were included if they underwent resection of the HA or CA during pancreatectomy. Survival was analyzed by Kaplan-Meier survivor functions, Cox proportional hazard models, and the log rank test.

Twelve patients (six men and six women) with adenocarcinoma underwent pancreatectomy with resection of a tumor-involved HA (n = 2) and/or CA (n = 10). Median age at diagnosis was 62 years (range, 53-73 years). All patients completed neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy with or without full dose chemotherapy before resection. Procedures performed were six extended pancreaticoduodenectomies, two proximal subtotal pancreatectomies, two distal pancreatectomies, and two total pancreatectomies. Ten cases involved celiac resections, and two had isolated HA resections. The 60-day mortality was 17% (2 of 12). Median survival after diagnosis was 20 months (range, 6-41 months). Median survival after resection was 17 months (range, 1-36 months). Survival was not statistically significantly related to age, sex, margin status, or preoperative CA19-9 level. The 3-year survival was 17%. There were no 5-year survivors.

Resection of the HA or CA with reconstruction may prolong survival for selected patients who undergo pancreatic resection after neoadjuvant therapy. However, this aggressive approach did not result in any long-term survivors in our series.