[Range of operation for cancer of the pancreas]

In order to improve the dismal results of the patients with cancer of the pancreas, we have been encouraged to perform an extended type of total or subtotal pancreatectomy. In this procedure, the peripancreatic tissues which tend to accept direct or metastatic involvement by cancer are resected en bloc with the portal vein, and Billroth I type of anastomosis is made for purposes of absorption of fat and release of gut hormones in the upper jejunum. Twenty-eight patients, consisting of 18 cancers of the head of the pancreas, six cancers of the body of the pancreas and four others, underwent this extended pancreatectomy. Only one died postoperatively, and the six including two long survivors are now living.