Published online Jul 28, 2016. doi: 10.3748/wjg.v22.i28.6424
Peer-review started: March 25, 2016
First decision: May 12, 2016
Revised: May 24, 2016
Accepted: June 15, 2016
Article in press: June 15, 2016
Published online: July 28, 2016
Processing time: 119 Days and 19.3 Hours
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma carries a poor prognosis with annual deaths almost matching the reported incidence rates. Surgical resection offers the only potential cure. Yet, even among patients that undergo tumor resection, recurrence rates are high and long-term survival is scarce. Various tumor-related factors have been identified as predictors of survival after potentially curative resection. These factors include tumor size, lymph node disease, tumor grade, vascular invasion, perineural invasion and surgical resection margin. This article will re-evaluate the importance of these factors based on recent publications on the topic, with potential implications for treatment and outcome in patients with pancreatic cancer.
Core tip: Many studies have investigated morphological indicators of survival in patients with resectable pancreatic cancer. This article scrutinizes the recent literature related to these classical prognostic factors and examines whether these factors still are able to influence patients’ outcomes in the era of multimodal treatment.