Resection margin involvement and tumour origin in pancreatic head cancer

Abstract Background Assessment of the origin of adenocarcinoma in pancreatoduodenectomy specimens (pancreatic, ampullary or biliary) and resection margin status is not performed in a consistent manner in different centres. The aim of this review was to identify the impact of such variations on patient outcome. Methods A systematic literature search for articles on pancreatic, ampullary, distal bile duct and periampullary cancer was performed, with special attention to data on resection margin status, pathological examination and outcome. Results The frequent reclassification of tumour origin following slide review, and the wide variation in published incidence of pancreatic (33–89 per cent), ampullary (5–42 per cent) and distal bile duct (5–38 per cent) cancers indicate that the histopathological distinction between the three cancer groups is less accurate than generally believed. Recent studies have shown that the wide range of rates of microscopic margin involvement (R1) in pancreatoduodenectomy specimens (18–85, 0–27 and 0–72 per cent respectively for pancreatic, ampullary and distal bile duct cancers) is mainly caused by differences in pathological assessment rather than surgical practice and patient selection. As a consequence of the existing inconsistency in reporting of these data items, the clinical significance of microscopic margin involvement in each of the three cancer groups remains unclear. Conclusion Inaccurate and inconsistent distinction between pancreatic, ampullary and distal bile duct cancer, combined with inaccuracies in resection margin assessment, results in obfuscation of key clinicopathological data. Specimen dissection technique plays a key role in the quality of the assessment of both tumour origin and margin status. Unless the pathological examination is meticulous and standardized, comparison of results between centres and observations in multicentre trials will remain of limited value.