[Survival following excision of exocrine cancer of the pancreas]

Nowadays resection is the only potentially curative method for cancer of the exocrine pancreas, but resectability rate remains very low despite the complexity and accuracy of the diagnostic techniques. 534 patients with pancreatic cancer were analyzed retrospectively. We performed 51 pancreatic head resections, 22 total pancreatectomies and 3 left resections (resectability rate 14.2%), with an overall mortality rate of 27.6%, decreasing to 12.5% in recent years. The median survival rate of 12 months increased to 21 months if we exclude postoperative mortality. The overall 5-year survival rates were 15.3% and 23.5% respectively. Moreover, some of the patients in our series are disease-free. Whenever possible, partial pancreatectomy offers the best prognostic and palliative results to patients with pancreatic cancer.