Recurrence After Whipple's (RAW)
Research type
Research Study
Full title
Recurrence After Whipple's (RAW): An international multi-centre retrospective cohort study investigating factors affecting cancer recurrence following pancreaticoduodenectomy for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, ampullary adenocarcinoma and distal bile duct cholangiocarcinoma
IRAS ID
280423
Contact name
Somaiah Aroori
Contact email
Sponsor organisation
University Hospitals Plymouth NHS Trust
Duration of Study in the UK
1 years, 0 months, 1 days
Research summary
Pancreatic cancers are aggressive cancers that are often inoperable when they are diagnosed. In the ~20% of patients who are diagnosed when the disease is still operable, surgery is the only treatment that can provide a chance of cure. Unfortunately, up to 75% of patients undergoing surgery will have the cancer come back (recur). One of the reasons for this is the challenge of removing the whole tumour with some surrounding normal tissue to ensure that every tumour cell has been removed. This is difficult because there are many structures very close to the pancreas (such as the blood vessels that supply the intestines) that cannot be removed. A recent review study of >1700 patients who had a Whipple’s operation (the cancer operation that is performed to remove the head of pancreas) and found that whilst the majority of patients had cancer recurrence in distant sites (like the liver) that would not be affected by how the operation was performed, 12% of patients had the cancer recur just at the site of where the operation had been (so-called ‘local’ recurrence). This suggests that a small amount of cancer was not removed at the time of surgery in these patients. Very few studies have looked at the relationship between the Computed Tomography (CT) scan before surgery and the histology results (information about the tumour after it has been examined under the microscope) and whether this can predict exactly where the tumour recurs. If we can find predictors of local cancer recurrence, we may be able to offer improved surgical techniques or other therapies during or immediately after the operation, hopefully leading to improved cure rates.
REC name
North West - Greater Manchester South Research Ethics Committee
REC reference
20/NW/0397
Date of REC Opinion
2 Oct 2020
REC opinion
Favourable Opinion