ABSTRACT
Objective: The aim of the study was to study the correlations of demographical and clinicopathological variables of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) and evaluate the association of these variables with patients' survival outcomes. Patients and Methods: A retrospective analysis of 123 patients with PDAC were diagnosed and treated at the National Cancer Institute, Misurata, Libya during the 2010-2108 period. Data for demographics, clinicopathological, biological variables, risk factors, presentation, treatment, and survival-related data were collected from the patients' medical records. Results: The mean age of patient was 61.2 years (range: 19-90 years) and most of patients (80.5%) were aged >50 years. For gender distribution, PDAC was more frequent in males (59.3%). Abdominal pain was the most frequent presenting symptom (84.6%) and 78% (96 patients) among them had head tumors. Most patients (80.5%) presented with unresectable tumor at diagnosis. Disease-free survival was better in patients with early stage (P < 0.0001), low-grade tumor (P = 0.001), resectable tumor (P < 0.0001), and with carcinoembryonic antigen levels <5 ng/ml (P = 0.004). Multivariate Cox's regression analysis showed that tumor stage is an independent poor survival factor (P = 0.002). Age at diagnosis, gender, family history, and position of tumor did not show any significant associations with patient outcome. Conclusion: Libyan patients with PDAC had different demographics, clinicopathological, and biological variables. Typically, they presented with unresectable tumor, advanced stages, and had very short survival times. These results urge us to conduct in-depth biomolecular research studies to identify effective early diagnostics and therapeutics biomarkers in order to fight this disease before it escalates.
