Abstract
At the time of primary diagnosis, metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (mPDAC) occurs in up to 60%. In approximately half of these patients, synchronous distant metastases are present, with around 37-42% of them being liver metastases.
The existing recommendations do not indicate a primary surgical procedure in stage IV of the disease. Recently, particularly with the advancement of systemic treatment, initial results have been published demonstrating the benefit of the primary surgical approach.
The results of ongoing randomized trials have been unavailable so far; therefore, there is not strong enough evidence to recommend a change in the strategy for mPDAC. Primary surgical procedure is currently allowed only as part of clinical trials at hepatopancreatobiliary centres.