Systematic Reviews
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2023. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Gastrointest Surg. Jul 27, 2023; 15(7): 1512-1521
Published online Jul 27, 2023. doi: 10.4240/wjgs.v15.i7.1512
Resection of isolated liver oligometastatic disease in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: Is there a survival benefit? A systematic review
James M Halle-Smith, Sarah Powell-Brett, Keith Roberts, Nikolaos A Chatzizacharias
James M Halle-Smith, Sarah Powell-Brett, Keith Roberts, Nikolaos A Chatzizacharias, Department of HPB and Liver Transplant, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, University of Birmingham, Birmingham B15 2GW, United Kingdom
Author contributions: Halle-Smith JM and Powell-Brett S performed the literature search, data collection and initial manuscript preparation; Roberts K and Chatzizacharias NA wrote and reviewed the manuscript; All authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
PRISMA 2009 Checklist statement: The authors have read the PRISMA 2009 Checklist, and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to the PRISMA 2009 Checklist.
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: Nikolaos A Chatzizacharias, MD, PhD, FRCS, FACS, Consultant Surgeon, Department of HPB and Liver Transplant, Queen Elizabeth Hospital, University Hospitals of Birmingham NHS Trust, Mindelsohn Way, Birmingham B15 2TH, United Kingdom. nikolaos.chatzizacharias@uhb.nhs.uk
Received: January 26, 2023
Peer-review started: January 26, 2023
First decision: February 7, 2023
Revised: February 22, 2023
Accepted: May 5, 2023
Article in press: May 5, 2023
Published online: July 27, 2023
Processing time: 175 Days and 16.8 Hours
Core Tip

Core Tip: The focus of management for isolated liver oligometastatic disease in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has typically been palliative. However, recently there is an increasing number of series reporting promising results from resection of oligometastatic disease limited in the liver. The findings of this systematic review, which summarises the current available literature, indicate that a survival benefit may exist in resection of selected cases of metachronous liver oligometastatic PDAC disease, after disease biology has been tested with time and systemic treatment. Any survival benefit is less clear in synchronous cases; however an approach with neoadjuvant treatment and consideration of resection in some selected cases may confer some benefit. Future studies should focus on pathways for selection of cases that may benefit from an aggressive approach.