Mini-review on the glucose metabolism modifications after pancreatic resection

Pancreatic cancer is one of the most severe malignant disease, with an extreme degree of lethality, considering that the survival rate at 5 years is up to 4%. In addition, a major disadvantage of this disease is the fact that the diagnosis is determined very late in the evolution of the disorder, despite the development of new technologies. In this way, the main symptoms are occurring later on, when the tumour is well to advanced and totally unresectable. Up to now surgery is the only modality that can provide a greater chance of survival, but unfortunately the pancreatic resection has many unknowns and controversies around it. Moreover, the studies on endocrine pancreatic function after resection are very few and somehow controversial. In this way, in the present minireview we will describe the most relevant experimental data regarding the post-resection pancreatogenic diabetes, the pancreatic polypeptide PP and the pancreatic glucose metabolism after resection or the glucose metabolism after partial or total pancreatectomy.