Aim: To evaluate the changes in the 8th edition American Joint Committee on Cancer (AJCC) for defining stage IB and IIA pancreatic cancer and identify their prognostic factors.
Methods: Pancreatic cancer patients were selected from the Surveillance Epidemiology and End Results database (1973-2013). The enrolled patients were divided into IB and IIA groups based on tumor size according to the 8th edition AJCC criteria. Clinical characteristics, including age, gender, race, tumor size, primary site, and grade were summarized. Univariate and multivariate analyses were performed to explore the prognostic factors of the IB and IIA stages of pancreatic cancer under new criteria.
Results: A total of 1349 pancreatic cancer patients were included. More patients had stage IB rather than stage IIA. Stage IB tumors (54.85%) were mainly located in the head of the pancreas, while stage IIA tumors were more often located in the tail and head of the pancreas (35.21% and 31.75%, respectively). The survival time of stage IB and IIA patients had no significant difference. Univariate and multivariate analyses indicated that the prognostic factors of survival for stage IB and IIA patients were different. For stage IB patients, age and primary site were the independent prognostic factors; for stage IIA patients, age and grade were the independent prognostic factors. The risk of death was lower among patients aged ≤ 65 years than those aged > 65 years.
Conclusion: The prognostic factors for stage IB and IIA patients are different, but age is the independent prognostic factor for all patients. The survival time of stage IB and IIA patients has no significant difference.
Keywords: 8th American Joint Committee on Cancer; Pancreatic cancer; Prognostic factor; TNM; Tumor size.