Initial experience with radical antegrade modular pancreatosplenectomy in a single institution

Purpose: Radical antegrade modular pancreatosplenectomy (RAMPS) is expected to be favorable for obtaining the negative tangential margin with oncologic feasibility through the horizontal dissection in a right-to-left fashion for radical lymph node dissections. Methods: From January 2007 to February 2015, a total of 30 RAMPS and 19 conventional distal pancreatectomy (DP) cases were enrolled. The demographics, perioperative and survival outcomes were compared according to the type of surgery. Results: The mean operative time, blood loss and length of hospital stay were similar between 2 groups. Morbidities were reported in 14 cases of RAMPS (46.7%) and 8 cases of DP (42.1%) (P = 0.777). The rate of negative tangential margin (96.2%) and the number of harvested lymph nodes (mean ± standard deviation, 21.5 ± 8.3) were significantly higher in RAMPS group (P = 0.011, P = 0.003, respectively). In terms of survival outcomes, there was no significant difference in regard to the overall 3-year disease-free survival (DFS; 30.4% in RAMPS vs. 35.0% in DP, P = 0.354) or overall survival (OS; 29.9% vs. 29.4%, P = 0.429) between the 2 groups. After exclusion of cases with nodal invasion, however, the RAMPS group had a longer DFS than the DP group (55.6% vs. 27.3%, P = 0.048) although OS was similar without significant difference (42.4% vs. 27.3%, P = 0.197). Conclusion: RAMPS is a safe and oncologically feasible procedure in left-sided pancreatic cancer by obtaining a successful negative tangential margin and radical lymph node dissection. The authors suggest it could also be useful for local control, especially for the limited left-sided pancreatic cancer without nodal invasion.