Postoperative pancreatic leakage might improve the survival of patients with carcinoma of head of pancreas

Summary 

The pancreatic leakage is a lethal postoperative complication to the patients after duodenopancreatectomy for carcinoma of head of pancreas. However, we found that the patients who survived this lethal postoperative complication could potentially acquire a longer survival time comparing with those without postoperative pancreatic leakage.

We surmise pancreatic enzyme can destroy tumor cell directly by its strong corrosive action. On the other hand, pancreatic leakage can lead to severe bacterial infection which cause serial inflammatory reaction and immunological reaction. We hypothesize that celiac infection after pancreatic leakage might prevent cancer cellstransfuse to liver along duodenohepatic ligament.

Our hypothesis might provide a novel therapeutic strategy for patients who underwent radical duodenopancreatectomy. For instance, the exogenous infection or controlling pancreatic leakage may be reasonable and deserve further study. With the aid of animal model of carcinoma of head of pancreas, this hypothesis could be partially or fully confirmed.