Angiolymphatic invasion as a prognostic fator in resected N0 pancreatic adenocarcinoma

BACKGROUND: Pancreatic adenocarcinoma remains one of the worst digestive cancers. Surgical resection is the main target when treating a patient with curative intent. AIM: To assess angiolymphatic invasion as a prognostic factor in resected pN0 pancreatic cancer. METHODS: Thirty-eight patients were submitted to pancreatoduodenectomy due to head pancreatic cancer. Tumor size, margins, lymph nodes, pTNM staging, angiolymphatic and perineural invasion were described in the pathologists' reports. RESULTS: Most patients were female. Overall median survival was 13 months. Gemcitabine was the regimen of choice for chemotherapy in selected patients; however, it did not improve overall survival. pR0 resection had better survival compared with pR1. Within the pN0 group, survival was significantly better in patients without angiolymphatic invasion. CONCLUSION: Angiolymphatic invasion in N0 pancreatoduodenectomy can be demonstrated by the Hematoxylin-Eosin stain and may predict a poor prognosis factor for those patients.