The circumferential margin has a significant and major prognostic impact on the rates of local recurrence, distant metastasis and survival. Information on circumferential margin is important in the selection of patients for postoperative adjuvant therapy.

Background: Resectable adenocarcinomas in the pancreatic head, by definition "periampullary", originate from ampullary, duodenal, biliary, or ductal pancreatic epithelium. Typically, periampullary adenocarcinomas have either intestinal or pancreatobiliary type of differentiation, and the type of differentiation might be prognostically more important than the anatomic site of origin. The aim of the study was to determine whether the histologic type of differentiation is an independent prognostic factor in periampullary adenocarcinoma, and whether tumour origin predicts the prognosis in pancreatobiliary type carcinomas independently of resection margin involvement, tumour size, nodal involvement, perineural and vascular infiltration, and degree of differentiation.

No abstract

Norwegian government and Norwegian Cancer Society.