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Background: Advances in the molecular biology of tumor metastasis have paralleled the evolution in the management of metastatic disease from colorectal cancer. In this review, we summarize the current understanding of the mechanism of colorectal cancer metastases, in particular that of peritoneal metastases, as well as clinical data on the treatment of this disease., Methods: A review of relevant English literature using MEDLINE/PubMed on the biology of colorectal cancer metastases, determinants of oligometastasis, and use of cytoreductive surgery and hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy in the treatment of metastatic colorectal cancer is presented., Results: Recognition of oligometastasis in the evolution of colorectal peritoneal metastases provides the theoretical framework for which cytoreductive surgery with or without hyperthermic intraperitoneal chemotherapy is considered. Clearly, a subset of patients benefit from peritoneal metastasectomy., Conclusion: Advances in cancer biology and clinical imaging promise to expand the role of cytoreductive surgery with or without intraperitoneal chemotherapy in the management of peritoneal metastases from colorectal cancer.

Background: Pancreatectomy with venous reconstruction (VR) for pancreatic cancer (PC) is occurring more commonly. Few studies have examined the long-term patency of the superior mesenteric-portal vein confluence following reconstruction., Methods: From 2007 to 2013, patients who underwent pancreatic resection with VR for PC were classified by type of reconstruction. Patency of VR was assessed using surveillance computed tomographic imaging obtained from date of surgery to last follow-up., Results: VR was performed in 43 patients and included the following: tangential resection with primary repair (7, 16%) or saphenous vein patch (9, 21%); segmental resection with splenic vein division and either primary anastomosis (10, 23%) or internal jugular vein interposition (8, 19%); or segmental resection with splenic vein preservation and either primary anastomosis (3, 7%) or interposition grafting (6, 14%). All patients were instructed to take aspirin after surgery; low molecular weight heparin was not routinely used. An occluded VR was found in four (9%) of the 43 patients at a median follow-up of 13 months; median time to detection of thrombosis in the four patients was 72 days (range 16-238)., Conclusions: Pancreatectomy with VR can be performed with high patency rates. The optimal postoperative pharmacologic therapy to prevent thrombosis requires further investigation.

The role of adjuvant radiotherapy in the treatment of ampullary carcinoma (AC) remains unclear. We hypothesized that adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) does not improve survival following resection for AC. The SEER database was queried for patients with non-metastatic AC who underwent surgery (S) from 2004 to 2010. Propensity score (PS) modeling was applied to create balanced cohorts of patients that would be equally likely to receive RT. Cox proportional hazard models were used to compare survival. Of 1,287 patients, 329 (25.6%) received adjuvant RT. Unadjusted median overall survival (OS) for patients receiving adjuvant RT compared to S alone was 27 vs. 36 months (p = 0.14). Patients receiving RT were younger (63 vs. 69 years, p < 0.001), had more advanced tumors (69 vs. 53% T3/T4, p < 0.001), and had more frequent lymph node metastasis (73 vs. 40%, p < 0.001). Adjuvant RT failed to improve both overall survival (27 vs. 29 months, p = 0.58) and disease-specific survival (36 vs. 40 months, p = 0.92) in propensity-matched cohorts, although certain imbalances remained between treatment groups. Adjuvant RT does not confer a survival benefit for patients with ampullary tumors. The lack of disease-specific survival benefit suggests that it may also not be beneficial to prevent local recurrences.

An important limitation of antireflux surgery is a 5%-10% failure rate. We investigated the correlation between various diaphragm stressors and failure of antireflux surgery. Forty-one study cases who underwent a reoperative antireflux operation from 1997 to 2001 and 50 control patients who had undergone a successful laparoscopic Nissen fundoplication during the same period without clinical or symptomatic evidence of failure were randomly selected for comparison. A retrospective analysis was conducted utilizing a standardized diaphragm stressor questionnaire, addressing the period between the primary and secondary operation. Stressors considered in the study included height, body mass index (BMI), postoperative gagging, vomiting, weight lifting (greater than 100 pounds), coughing, hiccuping, motion sickness, retching, belching, antidepressant use, smoking, preoperative grade of esophagitis, size of hiatal hernia, lower esophageal sphincter pressure, esophageal body pressures, and preoperative response to proton pump inhibitors. Of the potential stressors investigated, the following were significantly associated with surgical failure after adjusting for other variables through multivariate analysis: gagging (P = 0.005), belching (P = 0.02), and hernia size greater than 3 cm (P = 0.04; Table 1). Other potential risk factors show trends as obvious in Fig. 2. Vomiting was significant (P = 0.01) in the earlier models but lost significance when logistic regression was applied. Patients with postoperative gagging and an intraoperative hiatal hernia (greater than 3 cm) have a poorer outcome, whereas patients with postoperative belching have a better long-term outcome.