Adjuvant radiotherapy in the treatment of invasive intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm of the pancreas: an analysis of the surveillance, epidemiology, and end results registry.

BACKGROUND: Management and outcomes of patients with invasive intraductal papillary mucinous neoplasm (IPMN) of the pancreas are not well established. We investigated whether adjuvant radiotherapy (RT) improved cancer-specific survival (CSS) and overall survival (OS) among patients undergoing surgical resection for invasive IPMN.
METHODS: The Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) registry was used in this retrospective cohort study. All adult patients with resection of invasive IPMN from 1988 to 2007 were included. CSS and OS were analyzed using Kaplan-Meier curves. Unadjusted and propensity-score-adjusted Cox proportional-hazards modeling were used for subgroup analyses.
RESULTS: 972 patients were included. Adjuvant RT was administered to 31.8% (n=309) of patients. There was no difference in overall median CSS or OS in patients who received adjuvant RT (5-year CSS: 26.5 months; 5-year OS: 23.5 months) versus those who did not (CSS: 28.5 months, P=0.17; OS: 23.5 months, P=0.23). Univariate predictors of survival were lymph node (LN) involvement, T4-classified tumors, and poorly differentiated tumor grade (all P<0.05). In the propensity-score-adjusted analysis, adjuvant RT was associated with improved 5-year CSS [hazard ratio (HR): 0.67, P=0.004] and 5-year OS (HR: 0.73, P=0.014) among all patients with LN involvement, though further analysis by T-classification demonstrated no survival differences among patients with T1/T2 disease; patients with T3/T4-classified tumors had improved CSS (HR: 0.71, P=0.022) but no difference in OS (HR: 0.76, P=0.06).
CONCLUSION: On propensity-score-adjusted analysis, adjuvant RT was associated with improved survival in selected subsets of patients with invasive IPMN, particularly those with T3/T4 tumors and LN involvement.