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Background: Nationwide register data on the effect of primary treatment on survival in an unselected population of patients with pancreatic cancer (PC) have not been reported before. The study aim was to investigate the overall survival (OS) related to initial treatment with resection, chemotherapy, or best supportive care (BSC) in all patients diagnosed with PC in Denmark from 2011 to 2016., Methods: From 1 May 2011 to 30 April 2016, 4260 patients with PC were identified in the Danish Pancreatic Cancer Database. Ninety-seven patients (2%) were excluded, 56 because of treatment with preoperative chemotherapy, 39 because of incorrect registration of diagnosis or treatment, and 2 because of loss to follow-up; thus, 4163 patients were included., Results: The 718 patients (17%) receiving resection had a median overall survival (mOS) of 21.9 months (range 20.0-24.2). In the chemotherapy group of 1746 patients (42%), those treated with FOLFIRINOX had the longest mOS of 10.0 months (9.2-11.0), whereas those treated with gemcitabine had the shortest mOS of 5.1 months (4.8-5.6). The 1697 patients (41%) receiving BSC had a mOS of only 1.6 months (1.5-1.7)., Conclusions: The resected PC cohort had an OS comparable with that reported in randomised controlled trials (RCTs). The mOS of the chemotherapy-treated patients was slightly shorter compared with the results from RCTs and reflects the unselected population in this study. During the last decade, a larger fraction of patients received anticancer treatment, but the BSC group was still large and showed extremely poor OS., Competing Interests: Conflict of interest statement The authors report no conflicts of interest., (Copyright © 2020 Elsevier Ltd. All rights reserved.)

Introduction: The effect of waiting time to surgery on survival in pancreatic cancer patients is unclear. We examined this association in a nationwide population-based cohort study., Materials and Methods: A nationwide population-based cohort study of all patients undergoing surgery for pancreatic cancer (resection or a palliative procedure) registered in the Danish Pancreatic Cancer Database from May 2011 to May 2016. We defined waiting time to surgery in two ways: 1) from the date of entry into the National Cancer Pathway to the date of surgery and 2) from the date of the last preoperative computed tomography (CT) or positron emission tomography (PET-CT) scan to the date of surgery. Waiting time was grouped into three groups: <28 days (<4 weeks), 28-55 days (4-8 weeks), and ≥56 days (≥8 weeks). We calculated median survival with associated 95% confidence intervals (CIs) for patients undergoing resection and for patients undergoing a palliative procedure., Results: We included 873 patients. Mean age was 67 years (range: 35-86 years). Resection was performed in 701 patients (80%); the remaining 172 patients (20%) underwent an explorative laparotomy or palliative surgery. 652 patients (75%) had a registration in the National Cancer Pathway (median waiting time: 31 days, and 818 patients (94%) had registration of a preoperative CT or PET-CT scan (median waiting time: 32 days). We saw similar resection rates (∼80%) and median survival (∼22 months) in all thee groups., Conclusion: In this study, waiting time to surgery did not affect survival in patients undergoing surgery for pancreatic cancer., (Copyright © 2019 Elsevier Ltd, BASO ~ The Association for Cancer Surgery, and the European Society of Surgical Oncology. All rights reserved.)

Background: Adjuvant chemotherapy following curative resection is the standard treatment for pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PC). Randomized clinical trials using gemcitabine have shown a median overall survival (mOS) of 2 years and a 5-year survival rate of 15-20%. However, the effect of gemcitabine outside these trials is less clear. We examined the effect of postoperative gemcitabine on survival in an unselected cohort of patients receiving curative resection for PC in Denmark during a five-year period. Material and methods: From 1 May 2011 to 30 April 2016, 731 patients treated with curative resection were identified in the Danish Pancreatic Cancer Database (DPCD). Thirty patients died within 10 weeks postoperatively; 78 received other regimens or preoperative chemotherapy and were excluded. Of the remaining 623 patients, the chemotherapy (CT) group ( n  = 409, 66%) received gemcitabine within 10 weeks after resection, whereas the non-chemotherapy (NCT) group ( n  = 214, 34%) did not receive CT within 10 weeks. Results: CT patients were slightly younger than NCT patients but did not otherwise differ in baseline characteristics. The CT group showed a mOS of 24 months (95% CI; 21-27) and a 5-year survival rate of 22% (95% CI; 17-27); the NCT group had a mOS of 22 months (95% CI; 16-26, p  = .27) and a 5-year survival rate of 26% (95% CI; 19-34, p  = .66). Most patients (415/623) had lymph node metastases. Of these patients, those in the CT group ( n  = 280) had significantly longer mOS [20 months (95% CI; 18-24)] than those in the NCT group ( n  = 135) [14 months (95% CI; 11-17)]. Conclusions: In this national Danish cohort of PC patients undergoing resection between 2011 and 2016, the survival after postoperative gemcitabine was similar to that reported in previous clinical trials. However, the survival advantage of postoperative gemcitabine was limited to patients with lymph node metastases.

Objectives: Irreversible electroporation (IRE) is a novel non-thermal ablative technique applied in the treatment of unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC). This paper reports on the initial experience with IRE of unresectable LAPC in our institution., Methods: From October 2013 to March 2018, patients with unresectable LAPC referred for IRE at the Department of Gastrointestinal Surgery, Aalborg University Hospital, were considered for inclusion in the study. Ninety-day morbidity, 30-day mortality, pain score, length of hospital stay (LOS) and overall survival (OS) were recorded., Results: We included 33 patients receiving 40 IRE ablations in total. The median visual analogue scale (VAS)-score was four (range 0-10) two hours after IRE, and one (range 0-8) eight hours after IRE. The median LOS was one day (range 1-13 days). Post-procedural complications occurred in 21 of 40 ablations (53%), of which eight (20%) were major (Clavien-Dindo grade III or more). A proportion of the observed complications might be attributed to disease progression and not IRE per se. Although not statistically significant, we observed increased severity of complications in tumors above 3.5 cm. The 30-day mortality was 5% (2/40). The median OS was 10.7 months (range 0.6-53.8 months) from the initial IRE procedure, and 18.5 months (range 4.9-65.8 months) from time of diagnosis., Conclusions: In our institution, IRE seems as a feasible consolidative treatment of unresectable LAPC with an acceptable safety profile. The oncological outcome of IRE in patients with unresectable LAPC is to be further evaluated in a planned phase 2 clinical trial (CHEMOFIRE-2).

It is unknown whether urban versus rural residency affects pancreatic cancer survival in a universal tax-financed healthcare system. We conducted a nationwide, population-based cohort study of all patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in Denmark from 2004-2015. We used nationwide registries to collect information on characteristics, comorbidity, cancer-directed treatment, and vital status. We followed the patients from pancreatic cancer diagnosis until death, emigration, or 1 October 2017, whichever occurred first. We truncated at five years of follow up. We stratified patients into calendar periods according to year of diagnosis (2004-2007, 2008-2011, and 2012-2015). We used Cox proportional hazards model to compute hazard ratios (HRs) with associated 95% confidence intervals (CIs) of death, comparing patients in urban and rural areas. HRs were adjusted for age, sex, comorbidity, tumor stage, and localization. In a sub-analysis, we also adjusted for cancer-directed treatment. We included 10,594 patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. Median age was 71 years (inter-quartile range: 63-78 years), and half were men. The majority (61.7%) lived in an urban area at the time of diagnosis. When adjusting for potential confounders, we observed a better survival rate among pancreatic cancer patients residing in urban areas compared with rural areas (adjusted HR: 0.92; 95% CI: 0.87-0.98). When taking treatment into account, the association was unclear (adjusted HR: 0.96; 95% CI: 0.88-1.04). Pancreatic cancer patients residing in urban areas had a slightly better survival rate compared with patients in rural areas., Competing Interests: The authors have declared that no competing interests exist.

To examine the impact of plasma D-dimer levels in predicting 3-year survival and nonresectability in pancreatic cancer patients. Ninety-five patients were divided into three groups according to plasma D-dimer levels. Kaplan-Meier survival curves and hazard ratios were computed, and diagnostic indices of D-dimer in the prediction of resectability were assessed. The median survival among patients with low, medium and high D-dimer levels was 13.7 [95% confidence interval (CI): 10.2-19.6], 6.2 (95% CI: 2.0-15.1) and 2.4 months (95% CI: 1.4-3.3), respectively. The adjusted hazard ratio of death in the group of patients with high D-dimer levels was 2.2 (95% CI: 1.1-4.2). The positive and negative predictive values of D-dimer in the prediction of nonresectability were 89% (95% CI: 77-96%) and 48% (95% CI: 33- 63%), respectively. An elevated D-dimer level is associated with reduced survival in pancreatic cancer and predicts nonresectability.

Background: The differences in outcome among cancer patients with incidental vs. symptomatic venous thromboembolism (VTE) are unknown. In this study, patients with extrahepatic pancreaticobiliary tract cancer (PBC) were selected for a prospective cohort study between February 2008 and February 2011., Methods: At the time of cancer diagnosis, all patients were examined for deep vein thrombosis with bilateral compression ultrasonography (biCUS). Computed tomography pulmonary angiography was also performed to diagnose pulmonary embolisms. After inclusion, the patients were followed up with clinical examinations, blood collections, and biCUS., Results: A total of 121 PBC patients were enrolled. At the time of cancer diagnosis, 15 patients had experienced a VTE (12.4%, 95% confidence interval [CI] 7.1-19.6), including six symptomatic and nine incidental cases. A total of 25 first-time VTE events were identified (20.7%; 95% CI 13.8-29.0). Patients with a VTE had reduced survival, with a median overall survival (OS) of 4.4 months (95% CI 2.2-11.5). The median OS of the patients with incidental VTE was 3.0 months (95% CI 0.1-15.0), which was not different from the median OS of the patients with symptomatic VTE (5.0 months; 95% CI 2.1-14.5). The median OS was 11.9 months (95% CI 8.1-14.7) in the PBC patients with no VTEs., Conclusion: The occurrence of a VTE event in a PBC patient within the first months of the disease is associated with significantly increased mortality., (© 2015 International Society on Thrombosis and Haemostasis.)