Objectives: This study tried to clarify the role of pancreatic resection in the treatment of secondary malignancy with metastasis or local invasion to the pancreas in terms of surgical risk and survival benefit.
Methods: Data of secondary malignancy of the pancreas from our 19 patients and cases reported in the English literature were pooled together for analysis.
Results: There were 329 cases of resected secondary malignancy of the pancreas, including 241 cases of metastasis and 88 cases of local invasion. The most common primary tumor metastatic to the pancreas and amenable to resection was renal cell carcinoma (RCC) (73.9%). More than half (52.3%) of the primary cancers with local invasion to the pancreas were colon cancer, and nearly half (40.9%) were stomach cancer. The median metastatic interval was 84 months (7 years) for overall primary tumors and 108 months (9 years) for RCC. The 5-year survival for secondary malignancy of the pancreas after resection was 61.1% for metastasis and 58.9% for local invasion, with 72.8% for RCC metastasis, 69.0% for colon cancer, and 43.8% for stomach cancer with local invasion to the pancreas.
Conclusions: Pancreatic resection should not be precluded for secondary malignancy of the pancreas because long-term survival could be achieved with acceptable surgical risk in selected patients.