Regional arterial intra-chemotherapy (RAIC) was an effective method of combined therapy for pancreatic carcinoma, which could elevate the regional con-centration of anticancer agents for sufficient dosage in pan-creas, reduce the systemic adverse events, increase the toler-ation of chemotherapy.It could also increase the concentra-tion of anticancer agents in regional lymph node of pancreas, thus decrease the lymph node metastasis.The mechanism of RAIC for pancreatic cancer and the impact for lymph node metastasis needed to be further investigated.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is a devastating and malignant disease,with a five year survival rate of less than 5％.Despite our improvement of surgical techniques and adjuvant medical therapy,most patients with pancreatic cancer have a dismal prognosis.The poor outcome of this tumor is associated with a high degree of drug resistance.Recently,the emerging knowledge of the molecular basis of pancreatic cancer may provide new avenues to get better prognostication for individual patients based on the molecular profile of obtained tissue by a biopsy or from resected specimens.So some novel drugs targeting signal pathway both within cancer cell and cancer microenvironment are undergoing preclinical.This article reviews the different targeted approaches in pancreatic cancer.

PET/CT is a useful method which combines metabolic and anatomic imaging. It has already a-chieved good results in differential diagnosis of pancreatic malignant disease, evaluating therapeutic effect, monitoring tumor recurrence and metastasis. This article will summarize the clinical utilization of PET/CT in the diagnosis and treatment of pancreatic cancer.

Objectives To investigate preparation of gemcitabine albumin nanoparticles, and its property of slow-release, the cytotoxic effect on pancreatic cancer cells (PANC1) in vitro, for improving the effect of regional intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy in pancreatic cancer with new medicament in the future. Methods The gemcitabine albumin nanoparticles were prepared with bovine serum albumin and gemcitabine with the desolvation-crosslink method, the concentration of gemcitabine was detected by high performance liquid chromatography (HPLC). The cytotoxic effect on pancreatic cancer cells in vitro were detected with MTT colorimetric assay. Results The mean diameter of gemcitabine albumin nanoparticles was (156.2±2.2) nm, and Zeta potential was (-20.4±1.41)mV, drug loading was 10.8%, drug release time in virto was 3 hours respectively. Gemcitabine albumin nanoparticles (0.01～50 μg/ml) had a 31%～44% inhibitory rate on PANC1 cell, which was similar to the inhibitory rate of same concentration of gemcitabine (26%～47%). Conclusions The new preparation of gemcitabine albumin nanoparticles had obvious drug slow-release effect, which may help improve the effect of regional intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer.

Objective To explore the clinical significance of ? catenin expression in pancreatic carcinoma.Methods The immunohistochemical staining was performed to detect the expression of ? catenin in the specimens of 46 patients with pancreatic carcinoma and the results were statistically analyzed. Results The abnormal expression rate on the membrane was 54.3%, the poorer the differentiation, the higher the abnormal expression rate. The levels of the cases in whom metastasis occurred were much higher than those without metastasis. The abnormal cytoplasm expression rate was 21.7%,which had not significant correlation with the clinical indexes, such as staging, tumor size, grading and metastasis. In 23 patients who accepted intervention chemotherapy before operation, the cytoplasm expression rate in those with tumor mass smaller was 0, which was evidently lower than that of those without tumor mass change (33.3%). Moreover, the abnormal membrane and cytoplasm expression rates had remarkable concordance (63.0%).Conclusion The abnormal membrane expression of ? catenin may accelerate metastasis, and the abnormal expression of ? catenin in cytoplasm may result in cell proliferation.

Objective To survey the biliary flora in patients with obstructive jaundice due to pancreatic head cancer,also the multiple factors which affect the positive findings of bile culture in these patients.Methods The information of 65 patients with obstruetive jaundice due to pancreatic head eancer,who admitted to surgery in Huashan Hospital from Oetober 2007 to October 2008 were reviewed retrospectively.The factors which may potentially affect the detection of bile pathogen in patients with malignant obstructive jaundice were studied with univarite analysis and muhivariate analysis,including age,history of biliary surgery,yellow stained time,serum alanihe aminotransferase level,serum bilirubin level,CA19-9 level,tumor size,site of obstruction,with or without clinical manifestations of biliary infection,and APACHE Ⅱ score.Results Twenty-five positive cultures happened in 65 bile samples (38.5％),including 21 strains of Gram-negative baeilli (72.4％),6 strains of Gram-positive bacteria (20.7％),and 2 strains of fungi (6.9％).Univariate analysis showed that the relevant factors which may affect the rate of positive bile culture in patients with malignant obstructive jaundice were age,history of biliary surgery,biliary obstruction site,biliary tract infection symptoms and APACHE Ⅱ score.Multivariate analysis showed that age,history of biliary surgery,biliary obstruction site and APACHE Ⅱ seore were independent risk factors.Conctusion Age,history of biliary surgery,biliary obstruction site and APACHE Ⅱ score were independent risk factors which led to positive findings of bile cultures in patients with obstructive jaundice due to pancreatic head cancer.

Objective To identify the types of pulmonary complications after pancreaticoduodenectomy,and to discuss the prevention and management of these complications.Methods Clinical data of 165 cases of pancreaticoduodenectomy in our hospital were retrospectively analyzed.Pulmonary complications were identified,therapeutic effects were observed.Results The incidence rate of pulmonary complications was 19.4％ ( 32/165),case-fatality rate was 6.25％ (2/32),two patients died from pneumonia,respiratory failure and ARDS.Complications mainly included pneumonia 13.9％ (23/165),pleural effusion 4.2％ (7/165),atelectasis 3.6％ (6/165),pneumothorax 1.8％ ( 3/165 ),respiratory failure 2.4％ (4/165) and ARDS 1.2％ (2/165).Conclusion Pulmonary complications after pancreaticoduodenectomy are not rare,especially for pulmonary infection and most are hospital acquired pneumonia.To understand rules and particularity of respiratory physiopathological changes after pancreaticoduodenectomy is very important for patients to safely pass over the perioperative period.

Objective To investigate the clinical characteristics, diagnosis, treatment and prognosis of pancreatic gastrointestinal stromal tumor (GIST). Methods We reported a case and reviewed the medical literature on pancreatic malignant GIST. We searched the Pubmed and main domestic database. The clinical data of the reported cases were studied, and their predictive factors for postoperative recurrence and metastasis were analyzed. Results Between January 1980 and July 2010, 16 cases of pancreatic GIST were reported. There were 7 males and 9 females, with a median age pf 56.5 (31-72)years. The clinical symptoms were nonspecific. The main presentation was upper abdominal pain or discomfort. A preoperative diagnosis was suspected on radiological examination. The tumor mainly appeared as a well-defined solid-cystic mass. Irregular enhancement appeared in the circumferential and solid portion of the tumor on enhanced CT scan sequences. The pancreatic and biliary ducts were rarely dilated. Endoscopic ultrasound guided fine needle aspiration cytology (EUS-FNA) was helpful in preoperative diagnosis. Of the 15 surgical patients, 14 underwent complete resection, while the remaining received cyst-jejunostomy. A correct diagnosis was made on histopathology and immunohisto-chemistry. On a mean follow up of 21 months (range, 1-60) in 14 patients, all patients were alive.Recurrence or metastasis occurred in 4 patients with tumors of high malignant potential. On univariate analysis, the only significant predictor for adverse outcome was mitoses≥10/50 HPF. Conclusions Pancreatic GIST is a rare tumor of relatively low malignant potential. It has a better prognosis than ductal adenocarcinoma. It is important to arrive at a correct diagnosis and treat the tumor with radical resection. Aggressive surgical resection is potentially curative. Imatinib is recommended in the treatment of patients with tumors with high malignant potential.

Objective To assess the value of multi-slice computed tomography angiography (MSCTA) in the preoperative detection of aberrant hepatic arteries in patients scheduled to undergo pancreaticoduodenectomy.Methods Patients with pancreatic and peri-ampullary tumors were preoperatively studied using contrast-enhanced abdominal CT angiography (CTA).The results on hepatic arterial anatomy were compared with those obtained from digital subtraction angiography (DSA) and on surgical findings.Results Eighty-one patients were included into this study.DSA was carried out in 29 patients to evaluate tumor resectability,and 66 patients received surgery.Anomalous hepatic arteries were detected in 17 (21％) patients on CTA.Thirteen (16.0％) patients had a single arterial variant,and 4 (4.9％) patients had two arterial variants.One patient each was seen in the Michels type Ⅳ,Ⅶ,and Ⅷ respectively,while 2 patients each were seen in the Michels type Ⅲ and Ⅴ respectively.Five patients were diagnosed as the Michels type Ⅵ,and four as the Michels type Ⅸ.One patient demonstrated a rare variant which was not included into the Michels classification.MSCTA had an accuracy of 100％,a sensitivity of 100％,and a specificity of 100％.Regarding the traceability scores of hepatic arterial segment,there were no statistically significant differences between MSCTA and DSA.Conclusions MSCTA is an effective imaging tool to assess arterial anatomical variation around the pancreatic head.It is non-invasive,and it provides valuable information on the peri-pancre atic vascular anatomy before pancreaticoduodenectomy.

Objective To evaluate the efficacy of preoperative regional intra-arterial chemotherapy (RIAC) in the treatment of resectable pancreatic head carcinoma. Methods The clinical data of 50 patients with resectable pancreatic head carcinoma who had been admitted to the Research Institute of Pancreatic Diseases of Fudan University from December 2006 to July 2007 were retrospectively analyzed. Patients were randomly divided into2 groups (n =25 in each group): patients in group A were treated with preoperative RIAC followed by regional pancreaticoduodenectomy, and patients in group B were treated with surgical procedure routinely. The lymphatic metastases in the 50 specimens of pancreatic head carcinoma were detected by histological examination with hematoxylin and eosin (HE) staining, and lymphatic micrometastases were detected by immunohistochemical method with staining of cytokeratin AE1/AE3 in 10 specimens with negative HE staining of the lymph nodes in each group. Results There was no significant difference in the incidence of complications, the length of hospital stay and the 1-, 2-year survival rates between the 2 groups (χ2 = 0.12, 2.88, P > 0.05). The incidence of positive lymph node metastasis in group A was 7.1% (52/734), which was significantly higher than 22.1% (118/532) in group B (χ2 = 60.01, P < 0.05). The incidence of lymphatic micrometastasis was 9.4% (30/319) in group A, and 9.1% (23/252) in group B, with no statistical difference between the 2 groups (χ2= 0.01, P > 0.05). Conclusions Preoperative RIAC is helpful in improving the prognosis of patients with resectable pancreatic head carcinoma by reducing the incidence of lymphatic metastasis and decreasing tumor stage.