Between 2003 and 2011, patients with locally advanced (stage III) pancreatic cancer who were treated with preoperative chemotherapy (PCHT) underwent surgical resection. Each patient was matched with the closest two patients with pancreatic cancer ( control group ) selected from our prospective electronic database who met the following match criteria: age (+/- 3 years), gender, ASA score, type of resection, pancreatic duct diameter (+/- 1 mm), and tumour size (+/- 5 mm).
