Abstract
BACKGROUND: Pancreatic cancer is a fatal disease with a poor prognosis. Pancreatic cancer is often unresectable at the time of diagnosis, so the analysis of risk factors in patients with indications for surgery is important. We investigated the impact of intraoperative blood loss (IBL) on survival and recurrence in patients with stage II/III pancreatic cancer after curative surgery. PATIENTS AND METHODS: This study included 76 patients who underwent curative surgery for stage II/III pancreatic cancer between 2007 and 2012. The risk factors for overall (OS) and recurrence-free (RFS) survival were identified. RESULTS: IBL of 1,000 ml was considered to be the optimal cut-off value for classification based on a receiver operating characteristic (ROC) curve analysis. The OS rates at 5 years after surgery in the groups with low and high IBL were 36.6% and 11.4%, respectively, which was a statistically significant difference (p=0.003). The RFS rates at 1 year after surgery were 49.8% and 24.6%, respectively, which was a significant difference (p=0.045). A multivariate analysis demonstrated that IBL was a significant independent risk factor for OS. CONCLUSION: IBL is an independent prognostic factor after curative resection of stage II/III pancreatic cancer. The reduction of bleeding during surgery is necessary to improve the results of pancreatic cancer surgery.