Comprehensive comparison of clinicopathological characteristics, treatment, and prognosis of borderline resectable pancreatic cancer according to tumor location

Abstract Background The prognosis of borderline resectable (BR) pancreatic cancer (PC) has improved by multidisciplinary therapy. However, the differences in clinical course between pancreatic head (Ph) and pancreatic body and tail (Pbt) cancer has not been fully elucidated. Therefore, we conducted this study to compare the clinical course of BR PC patients according to tumor location. Methods We retrospectively investigated consecutive patients with BR PC who initiated neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) between March 2015 and April 2019. We compared clinicopathological characteristics, treatment, recurrence pattern and post recurrence treatment between Ph and Pbt cancer patients. We also compared recurrence free survival (RFS) and overall survival (OS) according to tumor location. Results A total of 108 patients with BR PC were included. Tumor location was Ph 74 and Pbt 34, respectively. Initial regimen of NAC was nab-paclitaxel/gemcitabine in 106 and gemcitabine in 2, respectively. Although Pbt location was associated with more advanced T stage, it showed similar N stage, pathological stage, RFS, OS, and details of adjuvant chemotherapy compared to Ph location. The most common site of postoperative recurrence was liver-only recurrence in Ph tumor (32% vs. 6%, p = 0.04) and peritoneal dissemination-only recurrence in Pbt tumor (35% vs. 11%, p = 0.06). Furthermore, Ph cancer patients received a higher rate of monotherapy compared to Pbt cancer patients (19% vs. 0%, p = 0.08). Conclusions In our experience tumor location was not a prognostic factor for OS in BR PC. Postoperative recurrence pattern and treatment after recurrence were different according to tumor location.