Comparison of Invasive Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma versus Intraductal Papillary Mucinous Neoplasm: A National Cancer Database Analysis

Current evidence on overall survival (OS) between invasive pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) is limited to single-center reports. We aimed to compare the characteristics, management, and OS of invasive PDAC vs. IPMN using a national United States (US) database. Invasive PDAC or IPMN adult (≥18 years) patients were identified in the National Cancer Database (2004-2016). OS was assessed with the Kaplan-Meier method and the stratified log-rank test. We included 101,190 patients (100,834 PDAC, 356 IPMN). A higher proportion of PDAC vs. IPMN patients had clinical N1 (36.8% vs. 15.7%, < 0.001) and M1 disease (41.2% vs. 5.9%, < 0.001). A lower proportion of PDAC patients underwent surgery (25.5% vs. 80.3%, < 0.001), but a higher proportion received chemotherapy (65.4% vs. 46.1%, < 0.001) or radiation (25.3% vs. 20.5%, = 0.04). A higher proportion of surgical patients with PDAC vs. IPMN underwent margin-positive resection (23.0% vs. 14.0%, = 0.001). The median OS for PDAC vs. IPMN was 8.3 vs. 33.4 months. In the stratified analysis for N0M0 disease, the median OS for PDAC vs. IPMN was 12.8 vs. 43.3 months, for N1M0, it was 11.5 vs. 17.0 months, while for M1, it was 4.0 vs. 7.0 months. In both diagnoses, surgery yielded improved OS, while stratified analysis in the surgical cohort demonstrated similar findings. Invasive PDAC is more aggressive than invasive IPMN, yet in the case of metastasis, OS is equally poor. Excellent long-term OS is achievable with surgical resection in highly selected cases, and efforts should focus on facilitating surgical treatment.