PANCREATIC RESECABILITY CRITERIA FOR CANCER TREATMENT: AN INTEGRATIVE REVIEW

Abstract

Introduction: Pancreatic cancer has a high mortality rate due to its aggressive behavior and nonspecific symptoms, leading to late diagnosis of the disease. Adenocarcinoma is the most common type with the worst prognosis, accounting for more than 90% of cases. Considering that surgery represents an opportunity for curing the disease, the importance of studies on resectability criteria for this type of malignant tumor is justified. Objective: To investigate the current scientific collection related to pancreatic resectability criteria for the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Methods: This is an integrative literature review, conducted in June 2023, in the Virtual Health Library database, using the following Health Sciences Descriptors: “Surgical Resection” and “Pancreas Cancer” with operator boolean AND the filters “full text”, languages “Portuguese” and “English”, in the time of 2018-2022. Results: Of the forty-nine articles initially found, publications were excluded due to unavailability in full, duplication, or thematic escape, with the final corpus of twelve articles. Evidence indicates that pancreatectomy is the only form of treatment for pancreatic malignancies, whose treatment is essentially surgical, with curative potential for pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Marginal resection and lymph node status are important predictors of survival. However, the pancreatic anatomy and unfamiliarity with the site make its resection challenging. Final considerations: It is noticed that pancreatic cancer is difficult to detect and has a poor prognosis, and there are many challenges involving treatment, whether due to the advanced stage of the disease or difficulties in precision in surgical resection, highlighting the need for further studies in view of the disease aggressiveness and surgical therapeutic measures are essential to increase the chances of survival of patients.