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Prognostic factors in pancreatic cancer have been a hot topic for the clinical pancreatology, and many studies have been involved in the field. The author reviewed the pancreatic abstracts of American Pancreas Club 2011, and sumarized "highlight" of all the abstracts in prognostic factors in pancreatic cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Many diseases, including pancreatitis benign tumors and cancer, may require pancreas surgery. Pancreatic resection can lead to a prolonged survival in pancreatic cancer and even a potential chance for cure. However, the pancreatic surgery can result in complications, and high postoperative morbidity rates are still presence. This article reviews the pancreatic abstracts of American Pancreas Club 2011, which involves the more common complications, their prevention and treatment. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abstract is available at the Clinical pancreatic disorder I: Acute pancreatitis. North Am J Med Sci 2011; 3: 316-319. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The abstract is available at the Clinical pancreatic disorder I: Acute pancreatitis. North Am J Med Sci 2011; 3: 316-319. doi: 10.4297/najms.2011.3316 [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The article focuses on quality and number of operations of pancreatic cancer in Germany. A table indicating the outcomes of pancreaticoduodenectomy and total pancreatectomy from 3880 consecutive patients is discussed. It is also concluded that robust clinical practice and clinicians in leadership roles can drive productivity, extensive collaboration and high patient participation.

Pancreatic cancer is still considered to be one of the leading causes of cancer deaths. The most common of all the different types of pancreatic cancer is ductal original malignant tumors, and their clinical features are commonly characterized. However, for the rare tumors in the pancreatic region, the clinical features often vary, and detection of the cancers are detected late. Limited data are available to guide the management of very rare neoplasms of the pancreas. Therefore, to recognize or detect the rare tumors in the pancreatic region are of importance for the clinical practice. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Most of tumors found in the pancreas are adenocarcinoma of the pancreas. A small number of tumors in the pancreas, such as islet cell tumors or neuroendocrine tumors, papillary cystic neoplasms, lymphoma, acinar cell tumors, metastatic tumors to the pancreas often, have a far better prognosis, and the majority of these tumors are non-malignant or benign. The author reviewed the recent literatures, and summarized where the tumor comes originally in the pancreas, what is the type of the tumor, and how to treat the tumor. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Pancreatic cancer in many cases appears in a non-curatively resectable stage when the diagnosis is made. Palliative treatment become an option in the patients with advanced stage. The present article reviewed chemotherapy and radiotherapy in various advanced stage of pancreatic cancer. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Objectives: Evaluation of safety of subtotal pancreatectomy for cancer in elderly patients (70 years of age or more) and of long term survival compared with younger patients. Design: Retrospective study of information recorded prospectively in the departmental database. Setting: University hospital, Sweden Subjects: 74 consecutive patients who underwent subtotal pancreatectomy for cancer between 1985 and 1993. Main outcome measures: Postoperative mortality and morbidity, and long term survival. Results: The diagnosis was pancreatic cancer in 41, cancer of the papilla of Vater in 17, cancer of the bile duct in 7, juxtapapillary duodenal cancer in 5, and 4 other pancreatic head tumours. There were no differences in sex, first symptom, preoperative weight loss, radicality according to the pathology report, tumour size, grade of differentiation or presence of lymph node metastases between the two groups. The rate of postoperative complications was the same for both groups, as was the amount of intraoperative bleeding, operation time, and length of hospital stay including stay at the intensive care unit (ICU). Hospital mortality was 4% for the younger and 7% for the elderly (p = 0.61). The long term survival was the same in the two age groups both when all patients were included and when patients with pancreatic cancer were analysed separately. Conclusion: Subtotal pancreatectomy for cancer can be done safely in the elderly which is why chronological age alone is not a contradiction to resection of a periampullary or pancreatic head malignancy provided that the patients are carefully selected. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fourteen patients with pancreatic cancer, 2 with cancer of the papilla of Vater, and 14 with chronic pancreatitis were operated on with bilateral thoracoscopic splanchnicectomy caused by severe chronic pain. The median follow-up time was 13 months. Twenty patients were followed up for 3 months and 14 for at least 6 months. The surgical results were evaluated prospectively, both with visual analogue scale (VAS) and with documentation of the consumption of analgesics at elective follow-up after 1 week and 1,3,6, and 12 months postoperatively. All 30 patients stated that the characteristics of their pain had changed at recovery from anaesthesia, but only 6 of them reported immediate complete pain relief. All but 1 of the 14 patients with chronic pancreatitis had clearly reduced pain as evaluated by VAS 1 month after the operation, and this beneficial effect remained for the whole study period. Furthermore, the need for analgesics decreased. Also, in the 16 patients with cancer, there was on average a marked relief of pain from 1 week and onwards. The 6 cancer patients with survival more than 3 months had reduced pain for the remaining period of their lives. It seems that the final pain relief is persistent as is the reduced consumption of analgesics. There was no correlation between the number of cut nerves and pain relief as evaluated by VAS. Three patients were reoperated on for intrathoracic bleeding the evening after the operation, and one had transient pain located to one of the port sites. Otherwise, there were no postoperative complications. The operation time was short and the length of hospital stay in most patients was 24 hours or less. It was concluded that thoracoscopic splanchnicectomy appears to be a promising and relatively simple treatment for severe chronic pancreatic pain. Further studies are needed to establish its role in the management of intractable pancreatic pain. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]