Onkológia 5/2015

Current trends in the surgical treatment of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive disease with an overall 5-year survival rate of less than 5 %. Up to date, surgical curative R0 resection represents the basis of treatment for pancreatic cancer and remains the only chance for cure. Due to continuous improvements in surgical techniques and perioperative care, pancreatic resections have evolved into safe surgical procedures with low mortality and acceptable morbidity rates for experienced surgeons in high-volume centers. Recently, especially in the case of borderline resectable pancreatic cancer, more extensive approaches including extended lymphadenectomy, vascular resection, surgery for recurrent cancer, and multivisceral resections have been suggested to improve long-term outcome. Venous resections, including the portal and superior mesenteric vein during these procedures are well accepted, while resection of arterial vessels, metastases or recurrent disease are not considered as standard procedures and should therefore only be performed for special indications and in selected patients.

Keywords: carcinoma, pancreas, curative resection, surgical treatment.