Resectable invasive IPMN versus sporadic pancreatic adenocarcinoma of the head of the pancreas: Should these two different diseases receive the same treatment? A matched comparison study of the French Surgical Association (AFC).

PURPOSE: To compare survival and impact of adjuvant chemotherapy in patients who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) for invasive intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IIPMN) and sporadic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

METHODS

From 2005 to 2012, 240 patients underwent pancreatectomy for IIPMN and 1327 for PDAC. Exclusion criteria included neoadjuvant treatment, pancreatic resection other than PD, vascular resection, carcinoma in situ, or <11 examined lymph nodes. Thus, 82 IIPMN and 506 PDAC were eligible for the present study. Finally, The IIPMN group was matched 1:2 to compose the PDAC group according to TNM disease stage, perineural invasion, lymph node ratio, and margin status.

RESULTS

There was no difference in patient's characteristics, intraoperative parameters, postoperative outcomes, and histologic parameters. Overall survival and disease-free survival times were comparable between the 2 groups. In each group, overall survival time was significantly poorer in patients who did not achieve adjuvant chemotherapy (p = 0.03 for the IIPMN group; p = 0.03 for the PDAC group). In lymph-node negative patients of the IIPMN group, adjuvant chemotherapy did not have any significant impact on overall survival time (OR = 0.57; 95% CI [0.24-1.33]). Considering the whole population (i.e. patients with IIPMN and PDAC; n = 246), patients who did not achieve adjuvant chemotherapy had poorer survival (p < 0.01).

CONCLUSIONS

The courses of IIPMN and PDAC were similar after an optimized stage-to-stage comparison. Adjuvant chemotherapy was efficient in both groups. However, in lymph node negative patients, adjuvant chemotherapy seemed not to have a significant impact.