Clinical features and prognostic factors of spinal metastatic pancreatic cancer: A retrospective observational study

Pancreatic cancer is an aggressive malignant cancer that shows the lowest survival rates. Recently, the 5-year survival rate of pancreatic cancer has been increasing, owing to early diagnosis and therapeutic advancement. The purpose of this study was to investigate the clinical characteristics and significant prognostic factors of spinal metastatic pancreatic cancer. Seventeen patients diagnosed with spinal metastases originating from pancreatic cancer from January 2005 to December 2022 were divided into 2 groups: those who underwent spinal surgery and those who did not. We collected patients’ demographic data, clinical features, prognosis, and radiologic data. Age, sex, neurologic symptoms, symptom duration, metastasis location, non-neurologic symptoms, adjuvant therapy, overall survival, survival after spinal metastasis, pain score, and quality of life were compared. The average age was 64.05 (50–80) years. The average interval from pancreatic cancer diagnosis to spinal metastasis diagnosis was 12.53 (0–39) months. Eleven patients underwent spinal surgery, while six did not. Preoperative European Cooperative Oncology Group performance status score of the surgery group was 1.91 ± 1.04 and that of the non-surgery group was 2.5 ± 0.84. Survival time after spinal metastasis in the surgical group was 6.14 ± 6.0 months, while that in the non-surgery group was 2.54 ± 2.38 months. The 1-year survival rate after spinal metastasis was 18% in the surgical group, while that of the non-surgery group was 0% (P = .042). Pancreatic cancer patients with spinal metastases showed poor prognoses and extremely short survival rates. Despite poor prognosis, appropriate surgical treatment may improve prognoses.