Purpose: In the past 20 years, surgical resection has been a secure and applicable procedure for pancreatic cancer (PC), but it remains controversial for stage III PC with data evaluating its efficacy mostly derived from small randomized trials. Hence, we designed this study to further evaluate its benefit using surveillance, epidemiology, and end results dataset.
Patients and methods: Patients with stage III PC were identified in the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results registries from 2004 to 2014. The effect of surgery on cancer-specific survival was assessed by risk-adjusted Cox proportional hazard regression modeling and propensity score matching.
Results: Overall, 6,138 patients with stage III PC were included. Of these, 608 patients underwent primary tumor surgery. On multivariable analyses, surgery was independently associated with improved cancer-specific survival (HR=0.580; 95% CI=0.523–0.643, p <0.001). The survival benefit with surgery was also observed in the propensity score-matched cohort (HR=0.501; 95% CI=0.438–0.573, p <0.001).
Conclusion: Primary tumor surgery is associated with improved survival in stage III PC. Prospective randomized trials are needed to confirm these results, and further efforts are required to address patient selection.
Keywords: stage III pancreatic cancer, propensity score matching, surgery, surveillance, epidemiology, and end results (SEER) database