Laparoscopy in the staging of pancreatic cancer.
BACKGROUND
Over the past decade, laparoscopy has emerged as a popular method of detecting extrapancreatic metastatic disease in patients presumed to have localized pancreatic cancer.


RESULTS
The English language literature on laparoscopic staging of pancreatic cancer was reviewed. Interpretation of this literature on staging laparoscopy is difficult because (1) there has been inconsistent use of high-quality computed tomography (CT) in prospective studies, (2) many studies have included patients with locally advanced disease, and (3) the R0/R1/R2 resection rates among patients staged by laparoscopy have not been reported, making it impossible to correlate laparoscopic findings with the R0 resection rate. Laparoscopy may prevent unnecessary laparotomy in a proportion of CT-staged patients presumed to have resectable pancreatic cancer. However, routine laparoscopy is performed on patients judged to have resectable disease by high-quality CT, this fraction of patients is between 4 and 13 per cent.


CONCLUSIONS
When state-of-the-art CT is available, the routine use of staging laparoscopy may not be easily justified from the data in the recent literature. Selective use of laparoscopy may be more appropriate and will probably be a more cost-effective staging approach. Criteria are presented for the selective use of laparoscopy in the staging of patients with localized pancreatic cancer.
Pancreatic Tumor Study Group, The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center, Houston, Texas, USA.
P W
PW
Pisters
J E
JE
Lee
J N
JN
Vauthey
C
C
Charnsangavej
D B
DB
Evans
D003362:Cost-Benefit Analysis; D006801:Humans; D010535:Laparoscopy / Q000379:methods*; D008297:Male; D009367:Neoplasm Staging / Q000379:methods*; D010166:Palliative Care / Q000379:methods; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000000981:diagnostic imaging / Q000473:pathology* / Q000601:surgery; D011446:Prospective Studies; D014057:Tomography, X-Ray Computed / Q000379:methods; D018084:Ultrasonography, Interventional / Q000379:methods