Laparoscopic Staging for Pancreatic Malignancy

Pancreatic cancer is an uncommon malignancy with an unfavorable prognosis that occurs predominantly in the sixth and seventh decades of life. Adenocarcinoma is the most common histological type of this disease and will occur in more than 80% of patients with pancreatic cancer. At the time of diagnosis only 10% of patients have disease confined to the pancreas, 40% exhibit local spread, and 50% demonstrate distant disease (metastatic) spread [1, 2].