Preoperative CA19-9 levels predict disease-free survival and overall survival in pancreatic adenocarcinoma patients after resection.

Abstract

BackgroundThis study investigates the association between the preoperative serum CA19-9 and the effects of adjuvant chemotherapy (CT), and its impact on survival in patients undergoing curative resection for pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PAC).MethodsFrom January 01, 2015 to June 30, 2017, we retrospectively reviewed 421 PAC patients who underwent radical resection. The association between preoperative CA19-9 and disease-free survival (DFS), and overall survival (OS) was analyzed using Kaplan-Meier method and Cox proportional hazards model.ResultsA total of 354 patients eligible for this study were classified into three groups according to preoperative CA19-9: G1 (≤87 U/mL), G2 (87–322 U/mL) and G3 (>322 U/mL), in tertiles. Multivariable analysis showed preoperative CA19-9 and adjuvant CT were both independent predictors of DFS and OS. Subgroup analyses showed the multivariable-adjusted hazard ratios (HR) of DFS for patients treated with adjuvant CT were 0.54 (95% CI, 0.33–0.86), 0.63 (95% CI, 0.40–0.97) and 0.32 (95% CI, 0.21–0.49) in G1, G2 and G3, respectively. A trend of decreasing HR of recurrence risk was observed in the higher preoperative CA 19-9 group treated with CT.ConclusionsHigh preoperative CA19-9 is an emerging biomarker that identifies a more aggressive PAC subgroup, which might benefit more from postoperative CT.