Sun K, Mylavarapu C, Crenshaw A, Zhang Y, Hsu E, Xu J, Niravath M, Jones SL, Ordonez A, Abdelrahim M. Pancreatic head vs pancreatic body/tail cancer: Are they different? World J Gastrointest Oncol 2022; 14(3): 716-723 [PMID: 35321276 DOI: 10.4251/wjgo.v14.i3.716]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Maen Abdelrahim, BPharm, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Director, Houston Methodist Cancer Center, Houston Methodist Hospital, 6445 Main Street, Houston, TX 77030, United States. mabdelrahim@houstonmethodist.org
Research Domain of This Article
Oncology
Article-Type of This Article
Retrospective Study
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Mar 15, 2022; 14(3): 716-723 Published online Mar 15, 2022. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v14.i3.716
Pancreatic head vs pancreatic body/tail cancer: Are they different?
Kai Sun, Charisma Mylavarapu, Aubrey Crenshaw, Yuqi Zhang, Enshuo Hsu, Jiaqiong Xu, Marilyn Niravath, Stephen L Jones, Adriana Ordonez, Maen Abdelrahim
Kai Sun, Maen Abdelrahim, Houston Methodist Cancer Center, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, United States
Charisma Mylavarapu, Aubrey Crenshaw, Yuqi Zhang, Department of Internal Medicine, Houston Methodist Hospital, Houston, TX 77030, United States
Enshuo Hsu, Jiaqiong Xu, Marilyn Niravath, Stephen L Jones, Adriana Ordonez, Center for Outcomes Research, Houston Methodist Research Institute, Houston, TX 77030, United States
Author contributions: Sun K and Abdelrahim M designed the study; Sun K, Mylavarapu C, Crenshaw A and Zhang Y performed chart review; Hsu E, Xu JQ and Ordonez A analyzed the data; Niravath M and Jones SL performed bioinformatics and retrieved patient records; Sun K and Abdelrahim M wrote the manuscript; all authors have read and approve the final manuscript.
Institutional review board statement: The study was reviewed and approved by the Houston Methodist Hospital Institutional Review Board, Approval No. MOD00002232.
Informed consent statement: Informed consent from patients was waived.
Conflict-of-interest statement: There is no conflict-of-interest.
Data sharing statement: Technical appendix, statistical code, and dataset available from the corresponding author at ksun2@houstonmethodist.org.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Maen Abdelrahim, BPharm, MD, PhD, Assistant Professor, Director, Houston Methodist Cancer Center, Houston Methodist Hospital, 6445 Main Street, Houston, TX 77030, United States. mabdelrahim@houstonmethodist.org
Received: September 29, 2021 Peer-review started: September 29, 2021 First decision: November 7, 2021 Revised: November 16, 2021 Accepted: January 27, 2022 Article in press: January 27, 2022 Published online: March 15, 2022
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background
Pancreatic head and pancreatic body/tail have different embryological origins. Tumors arising at different locations of pancreas might carry different mutations and respond differently to chemotherapy.
Research motivation
To better define pancreatic cancer and search for precision oncological targets that yield better outcomes.
Research objectives
To study the relationships of pancreatic cancer location with molecular profiling, response to chemotherapy and survival.
Research methods
This is a single institution retrospective study that retrieved patients who carry a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer from July 2016 to June 2020. Patient demographics and molecular profiling information were reviewed and the relationship between tumor location and molecular profiling, response to chemotherapy and survival were analyzed.
Research results
Pancreatic head cancer and pancreatic body/tail cancer (PBTC) have different presentations but similar overall survival and response to chemotherapy. PBTC have significantly more TP53 mutations.
Research conclusions
Given that TP53 mutations predict gemcitabine sensitivity, gemcitabine containing chemotherapy should be considered for PBTC as first line.
Research perspectives
A larger and prospective study should be performed to explore the role of gemcitabine in PBTC.
