A long-term survival case treated with conversion surgery following chemotherapy after diagnostic metastasectomy for pancreatic cancer with synchronous liver metastasis

Defining oligometastatic pancreatic cancer: a systematic review and critical synthesis of consensus

BACKGROUND

Small retrospective series suggest that local consolidative treatment (LCT) may improve survival in oligometastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). However, no uniform definition of oligometastatic disease (OMD) in PDAC exists; this impedes meaningful conclusions.

PATIENTS AND METHODS

A systematic literature search using PubMed, Web of Science, and Cochrane CENTRAL registries for studies and protocols reporting on definitions and/or LCT of OMD in PDAC was performed. The primary endpoint was the definition of OMD. Levels of agreement were categorized as consensus (≥75% agreement between studies), fair agreement (50%-74%), and absent/poor agreement (<50%).

RESULTS

After screening of 5374 abstracts, the full text of 218 studies was assessed, of which 76 were included in the qualitative synthesis. The majority of studies were retrospective (n = 66, 87%), two were prospective studies and eight were study protocols. Studies investigated mostly liver (n = 38, 51%) and lung metastases (n = 15, 20%). Across studies, less than one-half (n = 32, 42%) reported a definition of OMD, while 44 (58%) did not. Involvement was limited to a single organ (consensus). Additional criteria for defining OMD were the number of lesions (consensus), metastatic site (poor agreement), metastatic size (poor agreement), treatment possibilities (poor agreement), and biomarker response (poor agreement). Liver OMD could involve three or fewer lesions (consensus) and synchronous disease (fair agreement), while lung metastases could involve two or fewer lesions and metachronous disease (consensus). The large majority of studies were at a high risk of bias or did not include any control groups.

CONCLUSION

Definitions of OMD were not used or varied widely between studies hampering across-study comparability and highlighting an unmet need for a consensus. The present study is part of a multistep process that aims to develop an interdisciplinary consensus on OMD in pancreatic cancer.

Distal pancreatectomy with en bloc celiac axis resection for pancreatic cancer: a pooled analysis of 109 cases

The aim of this study was to define the clinical outcome and prognostic determinants of distal pancreatectomy with en bloc celiac axis resection (DP-CAR) for pancreatic body/tail cancer. A pooled data analysis was performed on individual data for patients who underwent DP-CAR for pancreatic body/tail cancer as identified by systematic literature search. A total of 32 articles involving 109 patients were eligible for inclusion. Postoperative morbidity and mortality were 53% and 4%, respectively. Preoperative abdominal and/or back pain was completely relieved immediately after surgery in 98% of patients. The 1, 3 and 5 years overall survival (OS) rates were 59%, 21% and 10%, and the median OS was 14 months. Patients who received neoadjuvant treatment had a median OS of 23 months. In conclusion, DP-CAR for locally advanced pancreatic body/tail cancer can be performed safely with low mortality and provides survival benefit when combined with neoadjuvant treatment.

Simultaneous resection of the primary tumour and liver metastases after conversion chemotherapy versus standard therapy in pancreatic cancer with liver oligometastasis: protocol of a multicentre, prospective, randomised phase III control trial (CSPAC-1)

INTRODUCTION

Approximately 50% of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients are diagnosed with distant metastasis, especially liver metastasis. The current standard treatment for these stage IV patients is palliative chemotherapy. There is increasing agreement that synchronous PDAC and liver metastasis resection may benefit highly selected patients. Thus, the Chinese Study Group for Pancreatic Cancer (CSPAC)-1 trial is being launched to establish a strategy for selecting PDAC patients with liver oligometastases who may benefit from synchronous resection after conversion chemotherapy.

METHODS AND ANALYSIS

In this study, liver oligometastasis is defined as no more than three metastatic lesions irrespective of their distribution within the liver lobes. The trial contains two steps. In the first step, 1000 to 1200 needle biopsy-confirmed PDAC patients with liver oligometastases are eligible for inclusion. Candidates will receive first-line chemotherapy. The RECIST V.1.1 criteria combined with tumour markers will be applied to evaluate the tumour response to chemotherapy every two cycles. Pancreatic cancer and hepatic metastasis resectability will be identified by multidisciplinary teams. Approximately 300 patients who meet our criteria will enter the second step and be randomly assigned at a 1:1 ratio to simultaneous resection of the primary pancreatic cancer lesion and liver oligometastases if no extensive metastatic sites are found during surgery or standard chemotherapy. Postoperative chemotherapy is recommended, and regimen selection should be based on the preoperative chemotherapy regimen. The primary endpoint is real overall survival (from enrolment to death). This study was activated in July 2018 and is expected to complete accrual within 5 years.

ETHICS AND DISSEMINATION

This trial has been approved by the Clinical Research Ethics Committee of Fudan University Shanghai Cancer Centre. Written informed consent will be obtained from all participants. Serious adverse events will be reported. Trial results will be submitted for peer-reviewed publication.

TRIAL REGISTRATION NUMBER

NCT03398291; Pre-results.

Conversion surgery for initially unresectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma with synchronous liver metastasis after treatment with FOLFIRINOX

FOLFIRINOX is a highly effective anticancer treatment, even in advanced pancreatic cancer, which provides a potential cure in patients initially treated with a palliative strategy. A 47-year-old man was found to have an unresectable pancreatic cancer (4 cm in size) surrounding both the superior mesenteric artery and superior mesenteric vein. A simultaneous liver metastasis in Segment 8, with a diameter of 17 mm, was also detected. The pancreatic tumor markers CEA, CA19-9, and DUPAN-2 were significantly elevated to 21.7 ng/mL, 6224 ng/mL, and 1200U/mL, respectively. After 21 courses of FOLFIRINOX, the primary pancreatic tumor diminished in size (partial response) from 42 to 17 mm, and the liver mass almost disappeared. The tumor markers significantly decreased to almost normal levels. Fourteen months after the initial chemotherapy, conversion surgery was performed. Upon surgical resection, the pancreatic tumor was found to be Grade 1b, and a pathologically complete response was observed for the liver metastasis. The patient is still alive 32 months after initial treatment with no recurrence. This is an informative case of a locally advanced pancreatic cancer with a synchronous liver metastasis that had a significant response to FOLFIRINOX, allowing for subsequent curative resection.

Conversion surgery for initially unresectable pancreatic cancer: current status and unresolved issues

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal of all malignancies. One of the reasons for the dismal prognosis is that most diagnoses are made when the disease is either locally advanced or metastatic. Recent advances in chemotherapy and chemoradiotherapy (CRT) enable "conversion surgery" to be performed for selected patients with initially unresectable pancreatic cancer following favorable responses to preoperative treatment. Using FOLFIRINOX as preoperative treatment, the resection rate was reported as 6-44% of patients with locally advanced cancer and the prognosis of these patients was favorable. Even for metastasized cancer, recent reports show the effectiveness of conversion surgery, which has achieved 27-56 months of median overall survival. However, there are many unanswered questions about conversion surgery. The optimal regimen and duration of preoperative treatment remain unclear and there is still debate regarding the safety and effectiveness of vascular resection, which is often required for curative resection of locally advanced cancer. Accumulation of more data on conversion surgery is required to establish the safety and effectiveness of this treatment. In this review, we summarize the current status and unresolved issues about conversion surgery for initially unresectable pancreatic cancer.

Time to think: Selecting patients who may benefit from synchronous resection of primary pancreatic cancer and liver metastases

Pancreatic cancer remains a lethal disease and is associated with poor prognosis, particularly for patients with distant metastasis at diagnosis. Recently, Oweira reported a retrospective study that included 13233 metastatic pancreatic cancer patients from the Surveillance, Epidemiology and End Results database. They demonstrated that pancreatic cancer patients with isolated liver metastases had worse outcomes than patients with isolated lung metastases or distant nodal metastases. At present, the standard treatment for metastatic pancreatic cancer is chemotherapy. However, improvement in the safety of pancreatic surgery has led to the consideration of more aggressive surgical approaches. Schneitler reported two cases of hepatic metastatic pancreatic cancer in which negative margin (R0) resection and long survival were achieved after effective preoperative chemotherapy. In general, these two studies indicate that although pancreatic cancer patients with liver metastasis have a poor prognosis, surgical approaches may prolong survival for a few of these patients. A strategy to select hepatic metastatic pancreatic cancer patients who may benefit from surgical intervention is urgently needed.