Strong prognostic value of nodal and bone marrow micro-involvement in patients with pancreatic ductal carcinoma receiving no adjuvant chemotherapy

Table 1 Characteristics of patients and tumors

Variable	n	Ber-EP4 positive cellsin lymph nodes (n)
All patients	106	73
Male	59	42
Female	47	31
Primary Tumor
Carcinoma in situ	1	0
pT1	6	3
pT2	36	26
pT3	59	40
pT4	4	4
Nodal status
Negative (pN0)	51	29*
Positive (pN1)	55	44*
Tumor Grade
Well differentiated (G1)	5	4
Moderately differentiated (G2)	54	35
Poorly differentiated (G3)	47	34
Resection margin
Negative (R0)	90	59
Positive (R1)	16	14
Tumor cells in Bone marrow
Yes	14	9
No	45	31
Not analysed	47	33

Nodal status was detected both histopathologically and immunohisto-chemically. Bone marrow micrometastases were detected by immunohisto-chemistry. P = 0.035.

Table 2 Cox regression analysis showing the presence of occult tumor cells in lymph nodes, tumor grade, and histopathologically detectable lymph node involvement as independent prognostic factors for disease-free and overall survival

Prognostic factor	Reference group	Relative risk	P	Lower bound	Upper bound
				95% confidence interval
Recurrence-free (n = 86)
Age at surgery		1.01	0.706	0.98	1.03
Sex	Male	1.42	0.223	0.81	2.49
Stage	pT1-pT2	0.87	0.652	0.48	1.57
Grade	G I - GII	3.14	0.000	1.74	5.68
Nodal involvement	pN0	1.66	0.112	0.89	3.10
Nodal microinvolvement (Ber-EP4)	Negative	2.92	0.005	1.39	6.13
Overall survival (n = 89)
Age at surgery		1.00	0.996	0.97	1.03
Sex	Male	1.47	0.172	0.85	2.55
Stage	pT1-pT2	0.93	0.801	0.53	1.64
Grade	G I - GII	3.36	0.000	1.90	5.94
Nodal involvement	pN0	2.18	0.012	1.19	4.00
Nodal microinvolvement (Ber-EP4)	Negative	2.49	0.009	1.25	4.96