Prognostic significance of the highest peripancreatic lymph node in biliary tract adenocarcinoma.

BACKGROUND

Patients with biliary tract adenocarcinoma with nodal involvement have a poor prognosis. There is currently no standardized method for intraoperative lymph node assessment. The current study aimed to determine the prognostic significance of the highest peripancreatic lymph node (HPLN) in biliary tract malignancy.

METHODS

This was a retrospective study of patients undergoing potential curative resection of biliary tract adenocarcinoma from January 1995 through December 2010 who prospectively had intraoperative sampling of the HPLN. The median follow-up was 72.8 months. The primary end points were recurrence-free survival (RFS) and disease-specific survival (DSS).

RESULTS

The rate of HPLN positivity in 110 patients undergoing exploration for potential curative resection was 30 % and did not vary with histologic subtype (gallbladder vs. cholangiocarcinoma). Eighty-five patients underwent complete gross resection. In this subset, median RFS and DSS were 34.3 months (95 % confidence interval [CI] 23.6-not reached [NR]) and 62.4 months (95 % CI 40.8-NR) for HPLN-negative patients, and 9.6 months (95 % CI 4.76-NR) and 20.5 months (95 % CI 7.4-NR) for HPLN-positive patients (p < 0.01), respectively. Median DSS was 14.6 months (95 % CI 9.6-25.4) for patients with unresectable disease. On multivariate analysis, HPLN status was an independent predictor of RFS (hazard ratio 3.73, 95 % CI 1.86-7.45; p < 0.01) and DSS (hazard ratio 3.98, 95 % CI 1.89-8.38; p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

HPLN status is prognostic of RFS and DSS in biliary tract adenocarcinoma. Intraoperative nodal staging by HPLN sampling warrants further investigation in a prospective trial.