Does diagnostic laparoscopy improve staging of pancreatic cancer deemed locally unresectable by computed tomography?
Even the best computed tomography scan is not adequate for accurate staging of locally extended pancreatic cancer because occult distant disease will be found in half of the patients with left-sided disease and one-fourth of those with right-sided pancreatic cancer.
The association between MDM2 SNP309 and both ferritin and LDH in patients with stage 4 disease confirms the prognostic role of this polymorphism. The results suggest that the MDM2 SNP309 genotype can impact on tumour responses to hypoxia and might play an important role in the alteration of energetic metabolism in NB cells.