Comparing Laparoscopic and Open Surgery for Pancreatic Carcinoma

Background: Pancreatic cancer (PC) is one of the most aggressive malignant neoplasms with poor outcomes. Pancreatoduodenectomy (PD) is the only curative treatment for PC. Minimally invasive surgery has been progressively developed, first with the advent of hybrid-laparoscopy and recently with the total laparoscopy surgeries, but a number of issues are currently being debated, including the superiority between total laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy (TLPD)and the open pancreaticoduodenectomy (OPD). Studies comparing these two surgery techniques are merging and randomized controlled trials (RCT) are lacking but clearly required.

Methods/design: TJDBPS07 is a multicenter prospective, randomized controlled, trial comparing TLPD and OPD in pancreatic cancers. A total of 200 patients with pancreatic cancer underwent PD will be randomly allocated to the TLPD group or OPD group with an enhanced recovery after surgery (ERAS) pattern. The trial's aim is to exploring the overall survival (OS), disease free survival (DFS) and quality of life. The duration of the entire trial is seven years including prearrangement, a presumably five-year follow-up and analyses.

Discussion: Despite the fact there are several RCTs comparing minimally invasive pancreaticoduodenectomy (MIPD) and Open approach or LPD versus OPD. This trial will be the first comparing TLPD and OPD in a large multicenter setting. TJDBPS01 trial is hypothesized to assess whether TLPD has superiority over OPD in recovery and other aspects.