Resectability criteria in cephalo-pancreatic cancer

Background: Since pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed at an advanced stage the issue of how to manage invasive tumors has been raised in the literature. The curative treatment remains the surgical resection. What we aimed to assess in this review article is the extent to which an invasive tumor can receive an indication for resection. Methods: Articles concerning the management of pancreatic cancer were retrieved using the key words pancreatic cancer, vascular involvement and pancreatic cancer metastases. The database we used pertained to PubMed. Results: There is an ongoing debate on whether surgery is indicated in the case of arterial involvement advising caution when selecting patients for this type of intervention. Venous involvement, however, can and should be treated surgically since its postoperative outcome is similar to that of patients without venous invasion. Lastly, when dealing with metastases a surgical intervention is indicated in cases where they are few and easily resectable, without any harm occurring to healthy tissue.