Efficacy of Staging Laparoscopy for Pancreatic Cancer

Background/aim: Preoperative evaluation of resectability of pancreatic cancer (PC) is difficult, so that staging laparoscopy (SL) has come to be used for detecting occult metastases. We aimed to evaluate the prognostic impact of SL in comparison with exploratory laparotomy (EL) in unresectable PC.

Patients And Methods: Between 2010 and 2016, 57 patients with PC underwent SL after conventional tumor staging. Patient characteristics, operative findings and survival rates were compared between SL and EL group.

Results: Twenty patients (35%) were identified as having unresectable factors in SL group. In contrast, laparotomy showed unresectable factors in 8 patients who did not receive preoperative SL (EL group). The time between the surgery to the induction of chemotherapy was significantly shorter in the SL group (mean=6 days, range=2-17) than in the EL group (mean=10 days, range=6-15). There was no significant difference in overall survival between the two groups; however, EL was associated with shorter survival in the early postoperative period.

Conclusion: SL was associated with a shorter time interval to chemotherapy and lead to the prevention of unnecessary laparotomy.