Surgery for pancreatic neoplasms: How accurate are our surgical indications?

Reappraisal of a 2-Cm Cut-off Size for the Management of Cystic Pancreatic Neuroendocrine Neoplasms: A Multicenter International Study

OBJECTIVE

The aim of this study was to characterize an international cohort of resected cystic pancreatic neuroendocrine neoplasms (cPanNENs) and identify preoperative predictors of aggressive behavior.

BACKGROUND

The characteristics of cPanNENs are unknown and their clinical management remains unclear. An observational strategy for asymptomatic cPanNENs ≤2 cm has been proposed by recent guidelines, but evidence is scarce and limited to single-institutional series.

METHODS

Resected cPanNENs (1995-2017) from 16 institutions worldwide were included. Solid lesions (>50% solid component), functional tumors, and MEN-1 patients were excluded. Aggressiveness was defined as lymph node (LN) involvement, G3 grading, distant metastases, and/or recurrence.

RESULTS

Overall, 263 resected cPanNENs were included, among which 177 (63.5%) were >2 cm preoperatively. A preoperative diagnosis of cPanNEN was established in 162 cases (61.6%) and was more frequent when patients underwent endoscopic ultrasound [EUS, odds ratio (OR) 2.69, 95% confidence interval (CI) 1.52-4.77] and somatostatin-receptor imaging (OR 3.681, 95% CI 1.809-7.490), and for those managed in specialized institutions (OR 3.12, 95% CI 1.57-6.21). Forty-one cPanNENs (15.6%) were considered aggressive. In the whole cohort, LN involvement on imaging, age >65 years, preoperative size >2 cm, and pancreatic duct dilation were independently associated with aggressive behavior. In asymptomatic patients, older age and a preoperative size >2 cm remained independently associated with aggressiveness. Only 1 of 61 asymptomatic cPanNENs ≤2 cm displayed an aggressive behavior.

CONCLUSIONS

The diagnostic accuracy of cPanNENs is increased by the use of EUS and somatostatin-receptor imaging and is higher in specialized institutions. Preoperative size >2 cm is independently associated with aggressive behavior. Consequently, a watch-and-wait policy for sporadic asymptomatic cPanNENs ≤2 cm seems justified and safe for most patients.

Infected Pancreatic Necrosis Mimicking Pancreatic Cancer

Although infected pancreatic necrosis can develop as a result of rare conditions involving trauma, surgery, and systemic infection with an uncommon pathogen, it usually occurs as a complication of pancreatitis. Early phase of acute pancreatitis can be either edematous interstitial pancreatitis or necrotizing pancreatitis. The late complications of pancreatitis can be divided into pancreatic pseudocyst due to edematous interstitial pancreatitis or walled-off necrosis due to necrotizing pancreatitis. During any time course of pancreatitis, bacteremia can provoke infection inside or outside the pancreas. The patients with infected pancreatic necrosis may have fever, chills, and abdominal pain as inflammatory symptoms. These specific clinical presentations can differentiate infected pancreatic necrosis from other pancreatic diseases. Herein, I report an atypical case of infected pancreatic necrosis in which abdominal pain, elevation of white blood cell, and fever were not found at the time of admission. Rather, a 10-kg weight loss (from 81 to 71 kg) over 2 months nearly led to a misdiagnosis of pancreatic cancer. The patient was finally diagnosed based on endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration. This case highlights that awareness of the natural course of pancreatitis and infected pancreatic necrosis is important. In addition, endoscopic ultrasound-guided fine-needle aspiration should be recommended for the diagnosis and treatment of indeterminate pancreatic lesions in selected patients.

Differential diagnosis of solid pancreatic masses

Solid pancreatic lesions include mainly adenocarcinoma, neuroendocrine tumors pancreatic cystic neoplasms with solid component, solid pseudopapillary tumor, pancreatoblastoma, pancreatic lymphoma, and pancreatic metastasis. The most frequent pancreatic lesion is the adenocarcinoma, representing between 70% and 95% of all solid pancreatic neoplasm. The diagnosis of these lesions can be a challenge and currently, there are different imaging techniques such as CT scan, EUS and MRI with high sensitivity and specificity. The most widely used technique for the initial evaluation is the CT scan with a sensitivity between 76% and 92% for the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer. The EUS has a sensitivity for the detection of pancreatic lesions of around 98% and is accepted to be the most sensitive technique for the detection of small pancreatic tumors (<2 cm). The MRI, with a very high soft-tissue contrast resolution, provides an accuracy in the detection and staging of adenocarcinoma of 90-100%. A multimodality approach is usually necessary in patients with clinical suspicion of pancreatic lesion. The EUS is required for the local evaluation of the relation of the lesion with vessels and for tissue acquisition and the CT scan and/or MRI is usually required for the local and distance staging in case of pancreatic cancer. The purpose of this review is to provide an overview of solid pancreatic lesions and the role of the different imaging techniques in their evaluation.

Surveillance and management for serous cystic neoplasms of the pancreas based on total hazards-a multi-center retrospective study from China

Background

Serous cystic neoplasms (SCN) rarely have malignant potential, so accurate diagnosis of SCN is crucial for proper clinical management, especially to avoid unnecessary surgeries. However, the misdiagnosis of other pancreatic cystic neoplasm instead of SCN may highly increase the risk of malignancy in patients who receive no surgery.

Methods

Data from a total of 678 patients with pathologically confirmed to have SCN at sixteen institutions in China from January 1^st, 2006 to December 31^st, 2016 were retrieved to evaluate the malignancy risk of SCN.

Results

Among the 678 patients confirmed to have SCN with postoperative pathologic analysis, 649 patients (95.7%) had only one lesion and the average maximum diameter was 3.8±2.47 cm. Four patients were pathologically verified as having serous cystadenocarcinoma, so the SCN actual malignancy rate was 0.6%, while the mortality due to pancreatic surgery in these high-volume centers was nearly 0.2-2%. However, among the 99 SCN patients based on preoperative radiology, three were confirmed to have intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasms (IPMN), nine as mucinous cystic neoplasms (MCN), and four as solid pseudopapillary tumors (SPT) after postoperative pathological analysis. Thus, the total theoretical malignancy rate resulting from preoperative misdiagnosis was elevated to approximately 2.9%, higher than the risk of perioperative mortality.

Conclusions

When SCN can't be accurately distinguished from cystic tumors of pancreas, the malignant risk of cystic tumors may be higher than perioperative risk. However, if it can be diagnosed as SCN accurately, surgery can be avoided as well.

18F-FDG PET/CT in pancreatic adenocarcinoma: A role at initial imaging staging?

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma represents 90% of all pancreatic tumors. The only hope for prolonged survival in patients with this condition still remains surgery with complete R0 resection. Initial imaging has a pivotal role to identify patients who are eligible to curative surgery and those who may benefit of neoadjuvant chemotherapy. This review provides an analysis of the recent literature on 18F-fluorodeoxyglucose positron emission tomography/computed tomography (FDG PET/CT) in pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Performances of FDG PET in the detection of lymph node involvement and metastatic spread at initial staging and those in the assessment of response to treatment are described.

Current Status of Endoscopic Ultrasound Techniques for Pancreatic Neoplasms

Endoscopic ultrasound (EUS) now plays an important role in the management of pancreatic neoplasms. There are various types of pancreatic neoplasms, from benign to malignant lesions, and the role of EUS ranges from the imaging diagnosis to treatment. EUS is useful for the detection, characterization, and tissue acquisition of pancreatic lesions. Recent advancement of contrast-enhanced harmonic EUS and elastography enables better characterization of pancreatic lesions. In addition to these enhanced EUS imaging techniques, EUS-guided tissue acquisition is now the standard procedure to establish the pathological diagnosis of pancreatic neoplasms. While these diagnostic roles of EUS have been established, EUS-guided interventions such as ablation and drainage are also increasingly utilized in the management of pancreatic neoplasms. However, most of these EUS-guided interventions are not yet standardized in terms of techniques and devices and thus need further investigations.

Patients with pancreatic cystic neoplasms can benefit from management of multidisciplinary team: Experience from a Chinese academic center

BACKGROUND

Pancreatic cystic neoplasms (PCNs) are a spectrum of neoplasms that can be benign or malignant. The accuracy of diagnosis is critical for this disease since different types of PCNs are treated differently using various modalities. The use of a multidisciplinary team (MDT) has been shown to improve the management and outcomes of various diseases. We aimed to determine the performance of MDT in the management of PCNs.

METHODS

We retrospectively reviewed 167 pathologically-proven PCN patients and divided them among three groups according to their surgical data and treatment modalities: 1) historical control group (HC group); 2) concurrent control group (CC group); and 3) MDT group. The composition of subtypes of PCNs, preoperative diagnostic accuracy, postoperative complications, and postoperative hospital stay were compared among the three groups.

RESULTS

The incidence of SCN reduced in the MDT group, while the incidence of IPMN was much higher (P < 0.05). MDT management significantly improved the accuracy of preoperative diagnosis (71.7%) and also increased the individual diagnostic accuracies of ultrasound, CT, and MRI/MRCP. Postoperative pancreatic fistula was significantly reduced in the MDT group (28.3%; P < 0.001). Furthermore, the mean hospital stay after surgery in the MDT group (10.37 days) was shorter than those of the other two groups (27.35 days in HC group, and 19.28 days in CC group; P < 0.05).

CONCLUSION

For patients with PCN, MDT management was associated with an improvement in the overall accuracy of preoperative diagnosis, a lower incidence postoperative morbidity, and decreased length of hospital stay.

Pancreatectomy for pancreatic incidentaloma: What are the risks?

BACKGROUND

Pancreatic incidentalomas (PI) are nowadays common but the benefit-risk balance of surgery remains difficult to determine.

METHODS

Monocentric retrospective study of 881 pancreatectomies comparing resected PI with symptomatic lesion. Univariate and multivariate (MV) analyses were done to identify risk factors of malignancy in PI undergoing surgery.

RESULTS

Overall, 32% of pancreatectomies were performed for PI. Median size of PI was 30 mm (vs 28 mm; p = 0.15) and 49% were cystic (vs 42%; p = 0.197). Resected PI were mostly located in distal pancreas (61% vs 34%; p < 0.001), less frequently malignant (49% vs 59%; p = 0.004). PNETs were more frequent in PI (50% vs 21%; p < 0.001). Distal pancreatectomy (36% vs 23%; p < 0.001) or parenchyma-sparing surgery (34% vs 13%; p < 0.001) were more frequently performed for PI. Overall mortality (1.1% vs 1.2%) and morbidity (70% vs 68%) were not significantly different between both groups. Severe morbidity was lower for PI (15% vs 22%; p = 0.007). In multivariate analysis, age>55 years (HR 6.14; p < 0.001), size >20 mm (HR:26.7; p < 0.001) and biliary dilatation (HR 29.9; p = 0.027) were independent risk factors of malignancy and, when associated, the likelihood of malignancy was above 90%.

CONCLUSIONS

PI represent about 30% of indications for pancreatectomy and when resected after careful selection are malignant in 50% of cases.

Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm of the pancreas - epidemiology, risk factors, diagnosis, and management

Intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) is one of the most common cystic neoplasms of the pancreas. It is a heterogeneous disease and can be divided into ductal types and morphological subtypes. The incidence of IPMN is increasing, likely due to the widespread use of cross-sectional imaging and a growing elderly population. IPMN poses an increasing demand on the health care system. Current guidelines provide indications for surgery and recommendations for surveillance, but management of IPMN is still challenging in routine clinical practice. In this article, we review current knowledge about IPMN and provide future directions for improving diagnosis and management.