Clinical implication of peritoneal cytology in the pancreatic cancer patients who underwent curative resection followed by adjuvant gemcitabine or S-1 chemotherapy.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: The clinical implications of peritoneal lavage cytology (CY) status in the patients who received curative resection and adjuvant chemotherapy have not been established.

METHODOLOGY

We retrospectively analyzed clinical data from 143 consecutive patients who underwent macroscopically curative resection and received adjuvant gemcitabine or S-1 chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer from 2005 to 2014 in our institution. Correlations between CY status and survival and clinicopathological features were investigated.

RESULTS

Of the 143 patients, 21 patients were peritoneal washing cytology positive (CY+) (14.7%). Although significant difference was observed in the tumor size, no other correlation between cytology status and clinicopathological parameter existed. The recurrence free survival (RFS) rates at 3 and 5 years after surgery were 5.1% and 0% in CY+ patients, respectively, and were 21.5% and 16.1% in peritoneal washing cytology negative (CY-) patients, respectively, which were significantly different (p=0.001). The OS rates at 3 and 5 years after surgery were 17.1% and 8.6% in CY+ patients, respectively, and were 26.1% and 16.1% in CY- patients, respectively, which were trend to worse in the CY+ patients (p=0.254).

CONCLUSION

The patients with CY+ are likely to experience recurrence, even after they received curative resection and adjuvant Gemcitabine or S-1 adjuvant chemotherapy.