Cytokeratin-positive cells in the bone marrow from patients with pancreatic, periampullary malignancy and benign pancreatic disease show no prognostic information.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Pancreatic and periampullary carcinoma are aggressive tumours where preoperative assessment is challenging. Disseminated tumour cells (DTC) in the bone marrow (BM) are associated with impaired prognosis in a variety of epithelial cancers. In a cohort of patients with presumed resectable pancreatic and periampullary carcinoma, we evaluated the frequency and the potential prognostic impact of the preoperative presence of DTC, defined as cytokeratin-positive cells detected by immunocytochemistry (ICC).

Methods

Preoperative BM samples from 242 patients selected for surgical resection of presumed resectable pancreatic and periampullary carcinoma from 09/2009 to 12/2014, were analysed for presence of CK-positive cells by ICC. The median observation time was 21.5 months.

SUBMITTER: Hugenschmidt H 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC7667773 | biostudies-literature | 2020 Nov

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature