Aim: Patients were analyzed who underwent treatment of liver metastases from pancreatic cancer. Methods: Selection criteria were the possibility of R0 resection of the primary and/or the liver metastases, no other sites of metastases, and the presentation of liver metastases. A comparison of treatment by surgery versus chemotherapy regarding overall survival and disease-free interval was performed. Results: Between 1996 and 2008, a total number of 23 patients were retrospectively identified from a prospective database of 193 cases of pancreatic cancer. In 14 cases, liver metastases were found simultaneously, and in 9 cases metachronously, fulfilling the abovementioned selection criteria. Of these, 13 patients underwent surgery and 10 were treated by gemcitabine. There were no differences in survival in patients with synchronous liver metastases of pancreatic cancer treated by resection of the primary combined with partial hepatectomy versus treatment by gemcitabine (8 vs. 11 months). In patients with metachronous liver metastases, the median survival was increased after liver resection compared to patients who were treated with gemcitabine (31 vs. 11 months). Conclusions: Simultaneous resection of pancreatic cancer and liver metastases cannot be recommended. Resection of metachronous liver metastases of pancreatic cancer seems to improve survival in highly selected patients.

Background Stereotactic irradiation is widely used in brain oligo-metastases treatment. The aim of this study is to evaluate the prognostic value of magnetic resonance imaging (MRI) texture analysis (TA) of brain metastases (BM) of non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC).Materials and methods This study included thirty-eight consecutive patients undergoing stereotactic irradiation, that is, stereotactic fractionated radiotherapy (SRT) or radiosurgery (SRS), from January 2011 to December 2014 for 1-2 brain BM from NSCLC. Whole-brain radiotherapy (WBRT) was not delivered. The diagnostic MRI DICOM (Digital Imaging and Communications in Medicine) images were collected and analyzed with a homemade ImageJ macro, and typical TA parameters (mean, standard deviation, skewness, kurtosis, entropy, and uniformity) were evaluated for: brain progression-free survival; modality of brain metastatic progression (local progression or/and new metastases); and overall survival, after SRT/SRS.ResultsAfter SRT/SRS 14 patients (36.8%) experienced recurrence in the brain, with a recurrence in the irradiated site (five patients, 13.2%), new metastases (11 patients, 28.9%), local recurrence and new metastases (two patients, 5.25%). Nineteen patients (50%) died of tumor progression or other causes. Entropy and uniformity were significantly associated with local progression, whereas kurtosis was significantly associated with both local progression and new brain metastases.Conclusions These results appear promising, since the knowledge of factors correlated with the modality of brain progression after stereotactic irradiation of brain oligo-metastatic foci of NSCLC might help in driving the best treatment in these patients (association of SRT/SRS with WBRT? Increase of SRT/SRS dose?). Our preliminary data needs confirmation in large patient series.

In our experience, bone CT TA could be correlated to the risk of radiation-induced IFs. Studies on a large patient series and methodological refinements are warranted.

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The segmental anatomy of the liver using the planes of hepatic veins and portal trunks according to Couinaud is not an accurate tool for the presurgical localization of liver lesions in many cases.