Mohannad Abou Saleh, MD: Examining Follow-Up After Pancreatic Cyst Removal

New research presented at the annual American College of Gastroenterology (ACG) 2020 conference recommend close follow-up and continued surveillance of pancreatic cysts following surgical excision.

A team of researchers from the Cleveland Clinic described the post-surgical course of pancreatic cyst patients, while evaluating the rates and predictors of recurrent cysts, high-risk, and malignant transformation over a 5 year review of existing data.

In the cohort, the investigators examined data from 104 patients who underwent surgical intervention for pancreatic cysts with 37 (37.4%) cases undergoing pancreaticoduodenectomy and 62 (62.6%) undergoing distal pancreatectomy.

In the study there were 63% IPMN (74.55% side-branch), 14% MCN, 8% serous cystadenoma, 6% neuroendocrine neoplasm, 6% pseudocyst and 3% solid-pseudopapillary neoplasm. For surgical pathology, 27% of patients had adenocarcinoma and 14% had high grade dysplasia.

At the one-year mark following surgery, 34.5% had recent cysts with 5.1% with high-risk transformation and 11.7% malignant transformation. By year 5, these rates increased to 64.8%, 13.7%, and 19%, respectively.

The overall mortality rate was 13.5%, with 5.8% related to pancreatic causes over the 5 year review period.

In an interview with HCPLive®, Mohannad Abou Saleh, MD, an internist with the Cleveland Clinic, explained how the study relates to existing gastroenterology guidelines and what he thinks the lasting impact of the study will be.