Lu XL, Ge C, Wang RC, Zang H. Correlation between perineural invasion and clinicopathological characteristics in pancreatic cancer. World J Gastrointest Oncol 2025; 17(9): 108277 [DOI: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i9.108277]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Hong Zang, MD, PhD, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Nantong First People’s Hospital, No. 666 Shengli Road, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu Province, China. 13862901007@163.com
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Sep 15, 2025; 17(9): 108277 Published online Sep 15, 2025. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v17.i9.108277
Correlation between perineural invasion and clinicopathological characteristics in pancreatic cancer
Xiao-Liang Lu, Chuang Ge, Ruo-Chen Wang, Hong Zang
Xiao-Liang Lu, Chuang Ge, Ruo-Chen Wang, Hong Zang, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Nantong First People’s Hospital, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu Province, China
Author contributions: Lu XL and Zang H designed the research study, drafted, and critically revised the manuscript for important intellectual content; Ge C and Wang RC performed the data analysis and statistical interpretation and conducted the statistical analysis; Lu XL, Ge C, Wang RC, and Zang H contributed to study supervision; and all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: This study was approved by the Medical Ethics Committee of Nantong First People’s Hospital, approval No. 2021KT179.
Informed consent statement: The Institutional Review Board and Ethics Committee of our hospital waived the requirement for informed consent for this retrospective study, as it only utilized unidentified patient data and did not pose any potential harm or impact on patient care.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
Data sharing statement: The data used to support the findings of this study are available from the corresponding author upon request.
Open Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Hong Zang, MD, PhD, Department of Hepatobiliary Surgery, Nantong First People’s Hospital, No. 666 Shengli Road, Nantong 226001, Jiangsu Province, China. 13862901007@163.com
Received: April 10, 2025 Revised: June 4, 2025 Accepted: July 18, 2025 Published online: September 15, 2025 Processing time: 158 Days and 17.9 Hours
Abstract
BACKGROUND
Perineural invasion (PNI) is common in pancreatic cancer (PC) and is associated with poor prognosis.
AIM
To investigate the correlation between PNI and clinical pathological features in PC.
METHODS
Patients were retrospectively divided into non-neural invasion and neural invasion groups based on PNI. Differences in tumor location, size, carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA19-9) level, overall survival, abdominal pain, pathological type, differentiation, and lymph node invasion were compared. Correlation and logistic regression analyses were performed, and a predictive model was constructed.
RESULTS
The neural invasion group had a higher proportion of tumors in the head, larger size, higher CA19-9 levels, lower survival rates, more abdominal pain, and more lymph node invasion. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and higher differentiation were more common in the neural invasion group. Tumor location, survival, and differentiation were negatively correlated, while size, CA19-9 level, abdominal pain, and lymph node invasion were positively correlated with neural invasion. Tumor location, size, CA19-9 level, abdominal pain, differentiation, and lymph node invasion were independent risk factors. The predictive model showed good consistency with actual occurrence rates.
CONCLUSION
Tumor location, size, CA19-9 level, abdominal pain, differentiation, and lymph node invasion are important factors in neural invasion and tumor progression in PC.
Core Tip: This study investigates the association between perineural invasion (PNI) and clinicopathological features in pancreatic cancer (PC). A total of 112 PC cases were analyzed and categorized into PNI and non-PNI groups. Tumor location, size, carbohydrate antigen 19-9 levels, abdominal pain, differentiation, and lymph node invasion were identified as independent risk factors for PNI. A predictive model based on these variables demonstrated high accuracy and consistency. These findings offer valuable insight into the pathological mechanisms of PNI and may aid in early diagnosis and individualized treatment strategies for PC patients.
