Surgical patterns of care of pancreatic cancer. A French population-based study

Surgical resection is the standard recommended treatment in localized pancreatic cancer. The benefit of neoadjuvant chemotherapy is still debated. The aim of this population-based study was to describe the pancreatic cancer surgical management.

An observational real-world study from the French Network of Cancer Registries sampled 638 pancreatic adenocarcinomas diagnosed in 2019. Characteristics of patients, tumours and recommended and administered treatments were collected. Operability of the patients and resectability of the tumours were described. A multivariate logistic regression was used to identify factors associated with the probability of having surgical resection.

Among the 263 (41 %) patients with M0 pancreatic adenocarcinomas, 202 patients (77 %) were considered operable and 157 (60 %) also had a tumour considered resectable. Upfront resection was recommended for 68 % and resection after neoadjuvant chemotherapy for 32 % of these patients. Among operable patients with resectable tumour, 36 % underwent upfront R0 resection, and 15 % achieved R0 resection following neoadjuvant chemotherapy. Eventually, among M0 pancreatic adenocarcinomas, age over 80 years (OR_{≥80 years vs < 65 years}: 0.16 [0.06-0.39], p < 0.001) and WHO performance status over 0 (OR_{1-2 vs 0}: 0.43 [0.24-0.79], p = 0.013) decreased the odds of having resection. R0 surgical resection was achieved in 61 % of patients selected for upfront surgical recommendation, and 29 % of those selected for a prior neoadjuvant chemotherapy.

In a non-selected population, one-third of patients with localized pancreatic cancer had a complete R0 surgical resection. Neoadjuvant chemotherapy did not achieve a resection rate similar to that of patients selected for upfront surgical indication.