Prognostic impact of histological blood vessel invasion in patients with ampullary adenocarcinoma.

Backgrounds/aims: Ampullary adenocarcinoma (AmpCA) has a greater overall survival (OS) rate than other periampullary cancers such as pancreatic cancer or bile duct cancer. Nevertheless, the OS of AmpCA is still poor. In the present study we evaluated the clinicopathologic features of AmpCA with respect to its impact on OS.

Methodology: Records of 28 patients with AmpCA undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy from 1995 to 2009 in Kyoto Prefectural University of Medicine were reviewed retrospectively. The mean age was 65.6 and mean +/- S.D. tumor size was 2.08 +/- 1.13 cm. Of the 28 patients, nine (32%) were > or = T3 tumors and nine (32%) were pN1 stage. There were seven (25%) cases of pancreatic invasion (Panc-invasion) and 15 (54%) cases of duodenal invasion (Du-invasion). Further, 14 (50%) cases involved lymphatic vessel invasion (ly+) and five (18%) cases involved histological blood vessel invasion (v+). Eleven (39%) patients experienced recurrences, of which eight were liver metastases. The median OS was 37 months (range 0.6-139.6 months) and the five-year survival rate was 56.4%. The clinicopathologic features and prognoses of these patients were analyzed and the prognostic factors determined.

Results: On log-rank testing, Du-invasion (p = 0.029), ly+ (p = 0.022), and v+ (p < 0.001) were significantly associated with worse survival. According to multivariate Cox's hazard analysis using these three factors by Backward Elimination of Stepwise method, blood vessel invasion was the only significant prognostic indicator for survival (p = 0.046; Hazard ratio, 4.40).

Conclusions: Blood vessel invasion was an independent prognostic indicator, while prevention of liver metastases was important for longer survival.