RADICAL PANCREATIC RESECTION FOR BENIGN AND MALIGNANT DISEASE

From 1972 to 1990 a total of 44 patients (24 men and 20 women) underwe nt pancreatic resections at our institution. We undertook a retrospect ive review to discover what prognostic indicators would predict long-t erm survival for patients with malignancy. Prognostic indicators inclu ded primary tumor location and size, tumor differentiation and grade, tumor invasion, number of positive lymph nodes, and postoperative radi ation and chemotherapy. Overall, three patients died within the 30-day postoperative period (7%). One- and five-year survival rates followin g resection for malignancy were 67.5 and 31 per cent, respectively. Mu ltivariate analysis identified primary tumor origin, nuclear grade, an d pre-operative bilirubin level greater than 2 mg/dl as the only stati stically significant factors in determining survival. One- and five-ye ar survival for tumor location and tumor grade were as follows: [GRAPH ICS]. Our experience indicates that pancreatic resections are potentia lly curative in a significant percentage of patients with nonpancreati c primaries and, to a lesser extent, in those individuals with pancrea tic adenocarcinoma. Other prognostic indicators examined in our series , however, did not affect long-term survival.