Long-term survival after radical resection of advanced pancreatic cancer

A 65-yr-old man who underwent pancreaticoduodenectomy with portal vein resection for pancreatic cancer is alive 8 yr after surgery. Originally, computed tomography (CT) revealed an 8-cm tumor in the pancreatic head. The tumor had infiltrated the portal vein, but grew expansively, so there was neither biliary obstruction nor jaundice. Pancreaticoduodenectomy with resection of the portal vein was performed for pancreatic cancer. Many tumor-infiltrating lymphocytes were seen within cancer cell nests on routine histopathology. We performed immunostaining for CD8, and found that a large number of the lymphocytes were CD8⁺ T cells. The patient’s prognosis was considered poor because the tumor was large and had infiltrated the portal vein. We suspect that long-term survival may be related to the response of CD8⁺ T cells to the cancer.     

Radical surgery for hilar cholangiocarcinoma

In the therapy of hilar cholangiocarcinoma, the most favorable survival rates over the long-term are achieved by a surgical concept involving a no-touch-technique, en-bloc-resection and wide tumor-free margins. Currently, these goals can be best achieved by our strategy to combine extended right hepatic resections and principle portal vein resection. In spite of extending resectability to patients with locally advanced tumors, formally curative resections could be performed in 80% of the patients. The 5-year survival rate in these patients is 61%.     

胰腺癌术中门静脉/肠系膜上静脉重建材料的研究进展

随着外科技术的发展和围术期管理水平的提升,以往认为无法手术的侵犯大血管的腹部肿瘤,在血管重建技术的加持下,使得手术切除肿瘤成为可能。联合血管切除手术的应用使肿瘤切除范围扩大,提高了肿瘤的R0切除率,延长了患者生存期。门静脉（portal vein,PV）/肠系膜上静脉（superior mesenteric vein,SMV）系统,对于包括胰腺癌在内的肝胆胰及十二指肠肿瘤的手术至关重要,是上述肿瘤常累及的主要血管结构。联合PV/SMV系统切除重建技术的安全应用,为这类患者带来了新的希望。PV系统两端均为毛细血管网,血流速度慢,血液黏稠易凝,重建失败将严重影响肝脏血供,甚至引起肝功能衰竭。血管重建材料是影响手术效果和预后的重要因素,目前在静脉修复中,自体静脉、自体其他组织、同种异体静脉与人工材料均可作为供选择的修复材料,选择合适的材料对手术至关重要。本综述阐述了PV/SMV修复重建材料的研究进展,并说明了各种材料的特点与临床应用。      

胰十二指肠切除联合血管重建治疗胰头、十二指肠恶性肿瘤

背景与目的：胰头癌、十二指肠癌的治疗，手术切除仍是唯一可能根治的有效方法。但临床确诊时，多数为晚期，常累及门静脉／肠系膜上静脉、下腔静脉即属手术禁忌症。本研究旨在探讨累及门静彬肠系膜上静脉、下腔静脉的胰头癌、十二指肠癌切除的处理方法，以提高切除率及生存率。方法：总结2002年2月-2005年6月5例联合血管重建胰十二指肠切除术的临床资料及经验，其中胰头癌合并门静脉／肠系膜上静脉切除人工血管重建3例，十二指肠癌合并下腔静脉切除人工血管重建2例。结果：本组病例无围手术期死亡。无人工血管感染、阻塞并发症。随访10个月死亡1例，24个月死亡1例，术后存活超过3年2例，超过4年1例。结论：对累及门静彬肠系膜上静脉、下腔静脉的胰头癌、十二指肠癌行胰十二指肠切除联合血管重建手术是安全的，可提高肿瘤切除率，延长患者生存时间。     

胰腺癌累及肠系膜上动脉外科手术切除的应用价值探讨

目的:探讨肠系膜上动脉局部切除在胰腺癌外科治疗中的应用,并评估其可行性.方法:回顾分析2例胰腺癌局部广泛侵润病例,行部分肠系膜上动脉、门静脉和肠系膜上静脉联合切除并重建的手术方法及术后恢复情况,评价其临床效果.结果:2例胰腺癌患者手术过程顺利,病例1SMA部分切除,消化道重建采用child吻合法.病例2行全胰切除,将受侵的SMV、PV、SMA联同胰体癌、全胰、十二指肠、部分空肠及相应区域和腹膜后脂肪组织及淋巴结整块切除,应用脾动脉与肠系膜上动脉端端吻合.肠系膜上动脉分别阻断45min和67min,门静脉阻断31min和55min.术后行B超检查血管通畅,门静脉血流为1550mL/min和1620mL/min,术后6个月随访,显示血管重建(脾动脉和肠系膜上动脉)吻合通畅,l例无瘤生存3年2个月,另1例无瘤生存11月.结论:在胰腺癌肿瘤局部侵润肠系膜上静脉、门静脉和肠系膜上动脉时联合切除并行血管修复或脾动脉和肠系膜上动脉重建是一种有效的手术方法.     

Extent of venous resection during pancreatectomy—finding the balance of technical possibility and feasibility

The improvement of effective multidrug agents has allowed more patients to undergo resection for pancreatic cancer (PC). In the conversion cases of initially unresectable PC after induction chemotherapy, pancreatic surgeons often encounter challenging vein resections cases such as those of long-segment portal vein (PV)/superior mesenteric vein (SMV) encasement or occlusion of the distal (caudal) SMV. Given the lack of consensus for the optimal approach for major vein resections and reconstructions in these situations, this review summarizes the literature on this topic and provides the best currently available approaches for challenging vein reconstruction cases. For long-segment PV/SMV encasement, tips for direct end-to-end anastomosis without grafts and the splenic vein (SpV) reconstruction to prevent left-side portal hypertension will be introduced. For distal SMV encasement, several bypass techniques to deal with collateralizations will be introduced. Even though some high-volume PC centers are obtaining favorable outcomes for challenging vein resection cases, existing evidence on this topic is limited. It is essential to organize the well-designed international multicenter studies for the small population of challenging vein resection cases. With the emergence of effective chemotherapies, the number of PC patients who can undergo curative resection is increasing. Achieving more successful vessel resection and reconstruction in the treatment of PC is a common goal that pancreatic surgeons should focus on together.     

Survival after attempted surgical resection and intraoperative radiation therapy for pancreatic and periampullary adenocarcinoma

PURPOSE: To evaluate a single institution's experience with intraoperative radiation therapy (IORT) in combination with attempted surgical resection for pancreatic and periampullary adenocarcinoma. METHODS AND MATERIALS: From May 1986 until June 2001, 77 patients at LDS Hospital underwent attempted surgical resection and IORT for pancreatic or periampullary adenocarcinoma. A potentially curative resection was defined as surgery with negative or microscopic positive margins. No patients had metastatic disease at the time of surgery and IORT. Forty-four patients with tumors located in the pancreas and 9 patients with periampullary tumors underwent potentially curative surgical resection and IORT. Twenty-four patients had pancreatic tumors deemed unresectable and underwent surgical bypass and IORT. Actuarial survival was calculated from the date of IORT until last follow-up or death by use of the Kaplan-Meier method. RESULTS: Patients undergoing a potentially curative resection and IORT for periampullary adenocarcinoma had a median survival of 167 months and a 56% 5-year actuarial survival, compared with a median survival of 16 months and a 19% 5-year actuarial survival for patients undergoing the same treatment for pancreatic adenocarcinoma (p = 0.03). Patients with unresectable disease who underwent bypass and IORT had a median survival of 11 months and a 0% 3-year survival, significantly worse than patients able to undergo surgical resection and IORT (p = 0.0002). The operative mortality for all patients undergoing potentially curative resection and IORT was 3.7%. CONCLUSIONS: Intraoperative radiation therapy is well tolerated and does not increase the morbidity or mortality of potentially curative surgical resection for pancreatic or periampullary adenocarcinoma. Patients with periampullary adenocarcinoma have a better prognosis than those with pancreatic adenocarcinoma, and patients with unresectable pancreatic disease fared worse.     

Principles of surgical resection in hilar cholangiocarcinoma

The aim of this article is to describe the surgical techniques for the treatment of hilar cholangiocarcinoma(HC).Resection with microscopically negative margin(R0) is the only way to cure patients with HC.Today,resection of the caudate lobe and part of segment Ⅳ,combined with a right or left hepatectomy,bile duct resection,lymphadenectomy of the hepatic hilum and sometimes vascular resection,is the standard surgical procedure for HC.Intraoperative frozen-section examination of proximal and distal biliary margins is necessary to confirm the suitability of resection.Although lymphadenectomy probably has little direct effect on survival,inaccurate staging information may influence post resection treatment recommendations.Aggressive venous and arterial resections should be undertaken in selected cases to achieve a R0 resection.The concept of "no-touch proposed" in 1999 by Neuhaus et al combine an extended right hepatectomy with systematic portal vein resection and caudate lobectomy avoiding hilar dissection and possible intraoperative microscopic dissemination of cancer cells.More recently minor liver resections have been proposed for treatment of HC.As the hilar bifurcation of the bile ducts is near to liver segments Ⅳ,Ⅴ and Ⅰ,adequate liver resection of these segments together with the bile ducts can result in cure.     

Extending the frontiers of surgical therapy for hepatic colorectal metastases: is there a limit?

Hepatic resection for colorectal metastases, limited to the liver, has become the standard of care, and currently remains the only potentially curative therapy. Numerous single institutional reports have demonstrated long-term survival, and there are no other treatment options that have shown a survival plateau. However, curative resection is possible in less than 25% of patients with disease limited to the liver, which consequently translates into only 5% to 10% of the original group developing colorectal cancer. To increase the number of patients who could benefit from hepatic resection, the last decade has seen considerable effort directed towards the following areas, (1) refining prognostic factors that would improve patient selection, (2) advancements in surgical technique such as, use of intraoperative ultrasonography, controlling hemorrhage through use of vascular clamping techniques supplemented with low central venous pressure anesthesia, availability of novel devices for parenchymal transection, and controlled anatomic hepatectomy with Glissonian technique, and (3) novel approaches to permit curative hepatic resection such as, preoperative portal vein embolization for hypertrophy of future liver remnant and staged hepatic resection. This article reviews development of these innovative multidisciplinary modalities and the aggressive surgical approach that has been adopted to extend the frontiers of surgical therapy for colorectal hepatic metastases.     

The role of vascular resection and reconstruction in the treatment of hilar cholangiocarcinoma

OBJECTIVE: To evaluate the role of vascular resection and reconstruction in the treatment of hilar cholangiocarcinoma. METHODS: 117 patients with potentially resectable hilar cholangiocarcinoma underwent exploration. Twenty-one patients had exploration or drainage only due to distant metastases, and the other 96 patients received surgical resection. Thirty-one of those had vascular resection and reconstruction, including portal vein resection alone in 21 patients, combined hepatic artery and portal vein resection in 2 and hepatic artery resection alone in 8. Therefore, the patients were divided into four groups: non-surgical resection (21), portal vain resection (21), hepatic artery resection (10) and non-vascular resection (65) and their clinical data were reviewed retrospectively. RESULTS: The hepatic artery resection group had significantly higher perioperative morbidity and mortality rate (80.0% and 20.0%) than non-vascular resection group (16.9% and 1.5%), respectively, (P < 0.05), while no significant difference was found between the portal vein resection alone group and the non-vascular resection group (P > 0.05). Of all resected vessel specimens, vascular wall invasion beyond the adventitia was pathologically confirmed in 82.6% of the portal veins and 50.0% of the hepatic arteries. The 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates were 59.0%, 34.0%, and 16.0% in the non-vascular resection group, versus 44.0%, 23.0% and 11.0% in the portal vein resection alone group (P < 0.05) and 18.0%, 0 and 0 in the hepatic artery resection group (P < 0.01), respectively, with a significant difference among the three groups. The 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates in the non-surgical resection group were 13.0%, 0 and 0, respectively, which were similar to those in the hepatic artery resection group. Though a significant difference in survival rates existed between the portal vein resection alone group and non-resected group (P < 0.001), no significant difference was found between the hepatic artery resection group and non-resected group (P > 0.05). CONCLUSION: Both portal vein and hepatic artery resection can improve resection rate for hilar cholangiocarcinoma, and portal vein resection may improve the prognosis in selected patients. However, hepatic artery resection can not improve survival and may even lead to an increase of perioperative morbidity and mortality.     

血管切除及重建治疗肝门部胆管癌

目的 分析肝门部胆管癌患者的预后及术后并发症的发生率,探讨血管切除及重建在肝门部胆管癌治疗中的价值.方法 对117例行手术探查的肝门部胆管癌患者病例资料进行回顾性分77析.结果术后病理检查提示,在切除的血管标本中,有82.6%的门静脉血管外膜和50.O%的肝动脉血管外膜被肿瘤侵犯.无血管切除组吻合口瘘和肝功能衰竭的发生率与肝动脉切除组比较,差异有统计学意义(P＜0.05),而与单纯门静脉切除组比较,差异无统计学意义(P＞0.05).无血管切除组患者的1、3、5年生存率分别为59.0%、34.0%和16.0%,与单纯门静脉切除组和肝动脉切除组比较,差异有统计学意义(P＜0.05);非手术切除组患者的1、3、5年生存率分别为13.O%、0和0,与单纯门静脉切除组比较,差异有统计学意义(P＞0.叭),而与肝动脉切除组比较,差异无统计学意义(P＞0.05).结论 联合门静脉切除和肝动脉切除均能提高肝门部胆管癌的根治切除率.门静脉切除及重建,不仅能改善部分患者的预后,也不增加手术风险;而肝动脉切除及重建对患者的预后无明显影响,但增加了手术风险.     

Modern multimodality approach to hepatic colorectal metastases: solutions and controversies

Hepatic resection for colorectal metastases, limited to the liver, has become the standard of care, and currently remains the only potentially curative therapy. Numerous single institutional reports have demonstrated long-term survival and there are no other treatment options that have shown a survival plateau. However, curative resection is possible in less than 25% of those patients with disease limited to the liver, which translates into only 5-10% of the original group developing colorectal cancer. To increase the number of patients who could benefit from hepatic resection, the last decade has seen considerable effort being directed towards novel approaches to permit curative hepatic resection such as: neoadjuvant systemic and regional chemotherapy, pre-operative portal vein embolization for hypertrophy of future liver remnant, staged hepatic resection and radio frequency ablation combined with resection for addressing multiple bilobar metastases. This article reviews development of these innovative multidisciplinary modalities and the aggressive surgical approach that has been adopted to extend the frontiers of surgical therapy for colorectal hepatic metastases.     

Postoperative adjuvant therapy for pancreatic cancer

The majority of patients diagnosed with pancreatic cancer present at an advanced stage, and only a small percentage are considered technically resectable at diagnosis. The overall prognosis for the majority is dismal, with a median survival in untreated cases of only 24 weeks. Even in resected patients the overall 5-year survival rate is generally only 5% to 10%; however, some reports indicate higher 5-year survival rates in patients treated with surgery who are pathologically staged with no lymph node involvement. Even when macroscopically complete resection is achieved, local recurrence (LR) rates are unacceptably high (30% to 70%), which is usually attributed to the difficulty of obtaining microscopically free surgical margins. Microscopic clearance is difficult to achieve because these tumors frequently extend into the peripancreatic tissues (e.g., retropancreatic fat), abut or invade the adjacent large vessels (the portal vein and superior mesenteric artery), and have a propensity to invade the lymphovascular and perineural space. Other common sites of failure after attempted curative resection include metastasis to the liver and the peritoneal cavity. Patients who present with pancreatic cancer, and for whom curative surgery is deemed possible, are thus potential candidates for adjuvant therapy because of the high local failure rate following resection alone. The radiotherapy dose that can be achieved in the postoperative setting for pancreatic cancer is limited because of the proximity of critical structures (e.g., the kidney, liver, small intestines, stomach, and spinal cord). Newer techniques such as conformal radiotherapy and intensity-modulated radiotherapy have the advantage of being able (theoretically) to precisely localize the dose to the target volume while reducing the dose to critical structures. These techniques may potentially enable the tumorcidal dose to be increased; however, they are only now becoming widespread. Systemic radiation-sensitizing chemotherapy is also a promising approach to take advantage of additive or synergistic effects with radiation locally, and for the sterilization of systemic disease. This concept of concomitant chemotherapy with radiotherapy, or chemoradiotherapy, has proved effective in a number of sites, including the anal canal, rectum, lung, and pancreas. The recent trials reviewed here varied considerably in terms of the total dose and technique used, and the choice of radiation sensitizing treatment.     

Métastases hépatiques des cancers colorectaux : intérêt du traitement d’induction dans l’optimisation des résections. À propos de neuf cas

Introduction

A multidisciplinary approach and advance in surgery and chemotherapy has been made to increase the number of patients who could be candidates for surgical resection. We try to assess the value of this treatment in strategies to treat primary unresectable liver metastases.

Materials and methods

From January 2005 to December 2008, we treated nine patients with primary unresectable liver metastases from colorectal cancer.

Results

There were 32 cases of liver metastases from colorectal carcinoma, 9 of them were primary unresectable liver metastases. After chemotherapy, radiofrequency and portal vein ligation, these metastases became eligible for curative resection: neoadjuvant chemotherapy (3 cases), chemotherapy + radiofrequency (3 cases), chemotherapy + portal vein ligation + two-stage hepatectomy (2 cases), chemotherapy + portal vein ligation (1 case). There were no surgical deaths. The postoperative death rate was 22.2% (15, 20 months).

Conclusion

To date, surgical resection remains the only treatment that can ensure long-term survival and cure in some patients; allowing treatment, with curative intent, of metastases initially considered as unresectable.     

A case of successful surgical resection after repeated transcatheter arterial chemoembolization for far advanced multiple hepatocellular carcinomas in both lobes associated with Vp₂ portal vein tumor thrombus

Treatments for hepatocellular carcinoma (HCC) include surgical resection, transcatheter arteral chemoembolization (TACE), percutaneous local therapy and systemic chemotherapy. However, it is difficult to perform a curative treatment for patients with far advanced multiple hepatocellular carcinomas. Here we report a case of successful surgical resection after repeated TACE for far advanced multiple hepatocellular carcinomas in both lobes associated with Vp? portal vein tumor thrombus. A 54-year-old male who had multiple HCC lesions in lateral, median and right lobes with portal vein tumor thrombus was admitted to our hospital. Three attempts of TACE resulted in a successful control of the tumors in the right lobe. Left hepatic lobectomy was therefore performed, and a relapse-free survival was obtained for over 5 years after surgery.     

Prognostic relevance of the posterior resection margin for predicting disease free survival in ampullary adenocarcinoma

BackgroundPancreaticoduodenectomy is the only curative treatment option for patients with resectable ampullary adenocarcinoma (AA). Excellent disease free survival (DFS) can be achieved in patients with clear resection margins but it is poorly understood which patients are at increased risk of recurrence and hence would benefit from adjuvant chemotherapy. There is evolving evidence that the anatomical location of incomplete resection margins influences DFS in pancreatic adenocarcinoma. It is unknown if this also pertains to AA and therefore this study aimed to assess individual resection margin status and other predictors of DFS in AA.Material & methodsConsecutive patients undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy for AA at our institution from 1996 to 2017 were analysed. Pancreas neck, posterior and superior mesenteric vein margins were assessed individually. Cox proportional hazards modelling was used to identify predictors of 5-year DFS. Factors with p < 0.1 on univariate analysis were included for multivariate analysis.ResultsAnalysis of 104 patients revealed median OS and DFS of 56 and 34 months, respectively. Predictors associated with worse DFS on multivariate analysis were T3-stage (HR 3.6, p = 0.048), N1 (HR 2.9, p = 0.01) and N2 -stage (HR 3.6, p = 0.006), R1 status at the posterior margin (HR 3.0, p = 0.009) and a visible mass on CT (HR 2.0, p = 0.039).ConclusionRoutine histopathological assessment of individual resection margins may aid in predicting recurrence of AA. Future studies to assess if routine mesopancreas excision during pancreaticoduodenectomy can reduce the incidence of R1 status at the posterior margin are warranted.     

Extended resection for pancreatic adenocarcinoma

Adenocarcinoma of the pancreas presents a number of therapeutic challenges. Given the poor long-term outcomes after pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD), many surgeons have sought to improve survival via a radical or "extended" pancreatectomy which may include (a) total pancreatectomy (TP), (b) extended lymph node dissection (ELND), and (c) portal/mesenteric vascular resections. These themes of "extended" resection are addressed in this review. TP should not be performed for most cases of adenocarcinoma of the pancreatic head because of the nominal incidence of lymph node involvement along the body and tail of the pancreas, the scarcity of multicentric disease, and the better management of pancreatic leaks after PD. Most studies show no difference in long-term survival and demonstrate greater postoperative morbidity after TP than after PD. Performing ELND in addition to PD is not worthwhile because most studies do not demonstrate any long-term benefits from ELND and the circumferential dissection around the mesenteric vessels required to harvest distant lymph nodes increases postoperative morbidity. Major arterial resection increases postoperative morbidity after PD and worsens long-term survival as the need for arterial resection to achieve negative resection margins indicates more aggressive disease. In contrast, portal and/or mesenteric venous resection does not increase the morbidity after PD or impact long-term survival as venous resection is often performed because of tumor location and not extent of disease. The disappointing experience with extended resections underscores the need for better adjuvant systemic strategies and the interdisciplinary care of patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma.     

Imaging-guided curative surgical resection of pancreatic cancer in a xenograft mouse model

Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer related deaths in North America. The poor survival statistics are due to the fact that there are no reliable tests for early diagnosis and no effective therapies once metastasis has occurred. Surgical resection is the only curative treatment for pancreatic cancer; however, only less than 15% of the patients are eligible for surgery at diagnosis. New therapies are urgently needed for this malignant disease. And combinational therapy including surgery, chemotherapy and molecular targeted therapy may further improve the efficacy of individual therapies. However, a reliable mouse model which mimics the human disease and can be used for testing the surgical treatment and surgery-based combinational therapy is not available. In this study, we have established a mouse model for curative surgical resection of pancreatic cancer. Human pancreatic cancer cells were used to create orthotopic xenografts in nude mice, distal pancreatectomy was performed using imaging-guided technology to remove the pancreatic tumors, and sham surgery was performed in the control group. All mice survived the operation and no complication was observed. Surgical resection at early stage improved the survival rate and quality of life of the mice compared with the sham surgery and surgical resection at the late stage. If combined with other therapies such as chemotherapy and molecular targeted therapy, it could further improve the outcome of pancreatic cancer. This mouse model is a useful tool to study the surgical therapy and the tumor recurrence of pancreatic cancer, and could potentially impact the therapeutic choices for this deadly disease.     

Benefit from synchronous portal-superior mesenteric vein resection during pancreaticoduodenectomy for cancer: A meta-analysis

Background

Pancreaticoduodenectomy combined with portal-superior mesenteric vein synchronous resection for cancer remains a hot debate topic. The present study used meta-analytical technique to provide update information and an evidence-based evaluation on both the perioperative benefit and long-term survival.

Methods

A meta-analysis was performed to evaluate studies comparing venous resection (VR) versus without venous resection (WVR) groups. 22 retrospective studies including 2890 patients were eligible for an analysis of perioperative morbidity, mortality, and long-term survival. Furthermore, subgroup analysis was made according to histopathology and resection margin status respectively for the purpose of survival assessment.

Results

There was no difference in perioperative morbidity, mortality and 1-year, 3-year survival between two groups, but showed differences in median tumor size (P < 0.001), R0 resection rate (P < 0.001), lymph node metastasis (P = 0.03), pancreatic fistula (P = 0.01), and 5-year survival (P = 0.03). In subgroup analysis, patients in venous resection group received R0 resection had a significantly better survival comparing with who received R1 resection both at 2-year (P < 0.001) and 5-year (P = 0.00002). In histopathology subgroup, patients in venous resection groups who had true tumor infiltration had a significantly bad survival comparing with whom only with inflammation pathology.

Conclusion

Pancreaticoduodenectomy combined with venous resection can achieve equal perioperative morbidity and mortality as standard resection. However, in order to obtain an optimal survival outcome, surgeons should make an R0 resection as far as possible, especially in cases need synchronous venous resection.     

Guidelines for the surgical management of pancreatic adenocarcinoma

Pancreaticoduodenectomy remains the most formidable operative procedure for the surgical treatment of gastrointestinal malignancy. Improved outcomes after the Whipple procedure have been attributed to better preoperative patient selection, advances in three-dimensional radiographic imaging, and regionalization of referrals to high-volume, tertiary care centers. Despite these advances, morbidity and mortality after pancreaticoduodenectomy are not insignificant and the overall prognosis following resection for adenocarcinoma of the pancreas remains poor. Improvements in endoscopic decompression of malignant biliary obstruction have decreased the need for palliative bypass operations and have focused current surgical issues on ways to improve clinical outcomes following potentially curative resections. Controversies such as whether or not to perform extended lymph node dissections, and standard versus pylorus-preserving resections have been addressed by randomized, prospective clinical trials. Major venous resections secondary to local tumor extension are now performed without an increase in morbidity or mortality and with survival rates comparable to standard resections. This has led to even more aggressive resections following neoadjuvant therapy for lesions previously considered unresectable and now perhaps better categorized as borderline resectable. The impact of surgical specialization and regionalization of referrals to tertiary care centers is evident in markedly improved perioperative mortality rates. This article will attempt to describe current guidelines for the preoperative, intraoperative, and postoperative management of patients with localized pancreatic adenocarcinoma.