Background/aims: The aim of the present study was to evaluate whether CA19-9 level related to the curative resection and prevented unnecessary laparotomy in patients with borderline resectable pancreatic cancer.
Methodology: Retrospectively, logistic multivariate regression analysis was used to analyze data from 207 patients who underwent laparotomy for planned surgical resection at West China Hospital, during a 5-year period, and performed to identify CA19-9 levels contributing significantly to surgical resection. Inoperable patients were excluded.
Results: Patients with CA19-9 >150U/mL had a frequency of surgical resection 11.7% (14/120) vs. 34.5% (30/87) in those patients with a lower level of CA19-9 (p<0.001). Patients with larger tumor size had a 1.98-fold increased risk of unresectability compared to those with smaller tumor size (p=0.046). Using multivariate analysis adjusted the effects of other factors, high level of CA19-9 and larger tumor size were both considered to be an important risk factor for influencing surgical resection.
Conclusions: CA19-9 should be a good predictor of surgical resection possibility in patients with borderline resectable pancreatic cancer. Furthermore, it is useful in prognosis and optimizing surgical strategy.