Background: The clinical implications of peritoneal lavage cytology (CY) status in patients with potentially resectable pancreatic cancer have not been established.
Method: We retrospectively reviewed clinical data from 254 consecutive patients who underwent macroscopically curative resection for pancreatic cancer from February 2003 to December 2010 in our institution. Correlations between CY status and survival and clinicopathological findings were investigated.
Results: Of the 254 patients, 20 were CY+ (7.9 %). There were no significant differences between CY+ and CY- patients in background data (age, sex, the level of preoperative tumor marker, and adjuvant chemotherapy). Patients with positive serosal invasion were more likely to be CY+ than those with negative serosal invasion (P < 0.001) by univariate analysis. The median overall survival of CY+ patients and CY- patients was 23.8 months (95 % CI = 17.6-29.8) and 26.5 months (95 % CI = 20.7-32.3), respectively (P = 0.302). The median recurrence-free survival of CY+ and CY- patients was 8.1 months (95 % CI = 0.0-17.9) and 13.5 months (95 % CI = 11.5-15.5), respectively (P = 0.089).
Conclusion: CY+ status without other distant metastasis does not necessarily preclude resection in patients with pancreatic cancer.