Radical pancreatoduodenectomy with resection and reanastomosis of the superior mesenteric vein.

T HE biology of cancer of the pancreas is characterized by extreme malignancy and the rapacious growth of its metastases. The surgical therapy of this disease has been ineffective. Only one patient undergoing radical pancreatoduodenectomy for a carcinoma of the pancreas at this clinic has survived five years. This patient, originally reported by Dennis and Varco,l has now survived six years. This case report concerns a supplementary and futile attempt to remove a carcinoma of the pancreas completely by resecting a segment of the superior mesenteric vein encroached by. the tumor.