Prognostic significance of occult vertebral fracture in patients undergoing pancreatic resection for pancreatic cancer

The prognostic impact of occult vertebral fracture (OVF) in patients with malignancies is a new cutting edge in cancer research. This study was performed to analyze the prognostic impact of OVF after surgery for pancreatic cancer. This study involved 200 patients who underwent surgical treatment of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. OVF was diagnosed by quantitative measurement using preoperative sagittal computed tomography image reconstruction from the 11th thoracic vertebra to the 5th lumbar vertebra. OVF was diagnosed in 65 (32.5 %) patients. The multivariate analyses showed that male sex (p = 0.01), osteopenia (p