Relevance of Positive Resection Margins in Ductal Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma and Prognostic Factors

Abstract Introduction Currently, R1 resection is defined by the presence of tumor cells within Methods We performed a retrospective analysis with multivariate regression analysis of a prospective database from 2008 to 2017, which included resection margin status, expanded resection margin (R1  Results A total of 80 patients were analyzed: 42 (52%) R1; 38 (48%) R0. No differences were found in the composition of the two groups except for the vascular resection, which was more frequent in the R1 group: 12 (21%) vs 2 (3%). Overall survival in the R0 group was 19 months vs 24 months in the R1 group (P = .13). Wide R1 (R1  Conclusion R1 resection is not an independent risk factor. Lymph node involvement, differentiation grade and adjuvant treatment are prognostic factors. The benefit of expanding the resection margins should be demonstrated. More studies are needed to assess the impact of the resection margin.