Cancer of the pancreas: palliative operation, Whipple procedure, or total pancreatectomy.

The choice of operation for ductal carcinoma of the pancreas is as yet not clear. Failure to make an early diagnosis still stands out as the major problem in the treatment of this disease and as a result the resectability rate is exceedingly low. Between 1964 and 1973, nineteen total pancreatectomies were performed at Peter Bent Brigham Hospital for all tumors of the pancreas. Sixteen of these were for ductal carcinoma. The mortality was 12.5 per cent. When total pancreatectomy is compared with the Whipple procedure and a simple bypass procedure and when the tumor disease encountered is corrected for stage of disease, it is apparent that total pancreatectomy carries a statistically significant longer survival for patients with Stages I and II disease (no lymph node involvement) than the other two procedures. For Stages III and IV, there is no difference in survival between the three different operations. We therefore conclude that total pancreatectomy carries a better survival prognosis than other procedures performed for Stage I and II ductal carcinoma of the pancreas.