Prognostic factors after resection of ampullary carcinoma: multivariate survival analysis in comparison with ductal cancer of the pancreatic head.

Resection was performed in 85 patients with ampullary and in 150 with ductal pancreatic head carcinoma. Curative resection was achieved in 98 and 87 per cent respectively. Patient survival at 5 years after exclusion of hospital deaths was 38 versus 16 per cent respectively. The patients were compared retrospectively in a multivariate survival analysis. For patients with pancreatic carcinoma, residual tumour stage, tumour size and grading were independent prognostic factors, but for those with ampullary carcinoma only tumour size was a prognostic factor. Lymph node metastasis impaired prognosis, but this effect was demonstrable for both groups only after univariate analysis. The Union Internacional Contra la Cancrum classification system was not a reliable parameter of prognosis after resection of ampullary carcinoma. Patients with ampullary cancer appear to have a better prognosis intrinsically than those with pancreatic head tumours, and not simply because they present at an earlier stage. The difference in prognosis cannot be explained sufficiently by a differential importance of the various survival variables.