Improved surgical margins with neoadjuvant versus adjuvant chemotherapy in clinical stage I resectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma: A National Cancer Database study.

Abstract

651 Background: A strengthening consensus exists for neoadjuvant therapy (NAT) in borderline resectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PA), but the utilization of NAT in resectable stage I PA remains controversial. Many cancer centers are using NAT for these patients (pts), but others continue to offer upfront surgery and adjuvant therapy (AT). We hypothesized that NAT would improve margin negative resection in clinical stage I resectable PA. Methods: We utilized the IRB approved 2016 national cancer database for pancreas to establish a cohort of stage I PA pts. We divided this subset into pts who underwent NAT vs AT. We compared demographics. Primary endpoint was surgical margins. Results: 10,453pts from 2004 to 2016 had clinical stage I resectable PA: 8483pts (81.1%) AT and 1970pts (18.9%) total or partial NAT. There was a statistical difference in age (64.9 ± 9.9years NAT and 66.2 ± 9.9years AT, p<0.001), but no difference in Charlson comorbidity score (p=0.1693). NAT pts had significantly higher margin negative resection rates (84.5%) than AT pts (79.4%) (p<0.0001). Final pathologic staging was available for 10,237 pts: 8369 (81.8%) AT and 1868 (18.2%) NAT. Significantly fewer pts were upstaged on final pathology to stage II or greater (73.5%) in the NAT group than the AT group (84.1%) (p<0.001). Conclusions: NAT leads to significantly higher margin negative rates for resectable clinical stage I PA than surgery followed by AT. The majority of pts for both groups were upstaged suggesting that we continue to clinically understage the majority of pts. Overall, total or partial NAT for clinical stage I resectable PA provides a better chance for margin negative resection. Further study in the form of a randomized control trial is necessary. [Table: see text]