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Updated: May 24, 2026
DIPLOMA Approach for Standardized Pathology Assessment of Distal Pancreatectomy Specimens
Published on: February 1, 2020
Significance of lymph node micrometastasis in pancreatic cancer patients
J Kaťuchová1, J Bober, V Kaťuch
1First Department of Surgery, University Hospital Košice, Košice, Slovakia. jana.katuchova@upjs.sk
Unlabelled:
BACKGROUND /AIMS: The present study deals with the significance of lymph node micrometastasis in the survival rate for pancreatic cancer patients.
Methods:
Between January 2006 and December 2010 at the First Department of Surgery in Košice, a prospective trial was done in which we investigated the survival rate after radical pancreatic resection. All negative lymph nodes removed during standard radical lymphadenectomy were subjected to immunohistochemical staining to detect occult micrometastasis. A comparison of the median survival rate in groups of patients with immunohistochemistry-positive and -negative lymph nodes was performed.
Results:
Radical pancreatic resection with standard radical lymphadenectomy was performed on 64 pancreatic cancer patients. The median survival time was 15 months. Out of the 319 histopathologically negative lymph nodes (34 patients), 134 lymph nodes were classified as immunohistochemistry positive (21 patients). The median survival rate in the group of patients with immunohistochemistry-negative lymph nodes was 23 months, but in the group of patients with immunohistochemistry-positive lymph nodes it was 14 months. There was a statistically significant difference between these 2 groups of patients (p ≤ 0.01).
Conclusion:
The immunohistochemical examination of histopathologically negative lymph nodes can lead to positive lymph node detection. The presence of lymph node micrometastasis could predict the survival rate.
