Abstract:
Objective To explore the relationship of para-aortic lymph nodes (PALN) status with prognosis and clinicopathological features of pancreatic carcinoma patients after pancreatectomy.
Methods PubMed, Cochrane Library, Embase, CNKI, Wanfang Database and CBM were searched to identify the studies reporting the relationship of PALN with clinicopathological features and short-term survival of pancreatic cancer patients after pancreatectomy from inception to July 2016. Meta-analysis was performed by Stata 12.0 software.
Results A total of 14 studies were included, involving 3279 pancreatic cancer patients. Patients with positive PALN had worse one-year (OR=0.55, 95%CI:0.41-0.73, P=0.001) and two-year (OR=0.46, 95%CI:0.33-0.63, P=0.001) survival than those with negative PALN. Positive PALN was associated with increased possibility of R1 resection(OR=2.45, 95%CI:1.79-3.36, P=0.001), station 12 (OR=3.34, 95%CI:2.13-5.23, P=0.001), station 14(OR=2.76, 95%CI:1.90-4.01, P=0.001) and station 17 (OR=2.41, 95%CI:1.63-3.57, P=0.001) malignant infiltration, and decreased T1/T2 stage percentage(OR=0.31, 95%CI:0.10-0.98, P=0.046).
Conclusion The pancreatic cancer patients with positive PALN may suffer from a low short-term survival, high possibility of positive margin resection and malignant infiltration. PALN status is associated with clinicopathological features and prognosis of pancreatic cancer patients.