Radical resection benefits patients suffering pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma with liver oligometastases.

PURPOSE

Whether patients suffering liver oligometastases from pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (LOPDA) should undergo surgical treatment remains controversial.

METHODS

PubMed and Embase databases were systematically reviewed until 2023 June. Survival data were collected from the Kaplan-Meier curves. Safety and survival were evaluated using primary outcomes such as 1-year, 3-year, and 5-year survival rates, and 30-day mortality and morbidity. A subgroup meta-analysis was conducted to compare survival rates post-synchronous resection and resection post-neoadjuvant chemotherapy in LOPDA.

RESULTS

Our analysis of 15 studies involving 1,818 patients (surgical group, 648 and nonsurgical group, 1,170) indicates that radical hepatectomy for LOPDA notably improved 1-year (odds ratio [OR], 3.24; 95% confidence interval [CI], 2.45-4.28; P < 0.001), 3-year (OR, 5.74; 95% CI, 3.36-8.90; P < 0.001), and 5-year (OR, 4.89; 95% CI, 2.56-9.35; P < 0.001) overall survival (OS) rates. A separate analysis of 6 studies with 750 patients demonstrated the safety of LOPDA surgery, with no increase in postoperative complications (P = 0.26 for overall morbidity and P = 0.99 for mortality) compared to the patients with no metastatic disease from the pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (NMPDA) group. The NMPDA group showed superior 1-year and 3-year OS rates, but not 5-year OS rates compared to the LOPDA group.

CONCLUSION

Surgical treatment apparently offers a survival advantage to LOPDA by comparing with nonsurgical groups in 1-, 3-, and 5-year OS rates. Radical resection for LOPDA is a safe treatment without more postoperative complications than NMPDA.