Mucinous cystic neoplasms of the liver and extrahepatic biliary tree have recently been re-defined by WHO as epithelial cystic tumours with ovarian-type mesenchymal stroma. Correct recognition of these tumours can be difficult because of their rarity and, consequently, lack of awareness by the medical team. Radiological evaluation, including ultrasonography, computed tomography, magnetic resonance imaging and, upon necessity, positron emission tomography, can yield the correct diagnosis. Radical surgical resection with tumour-free margins is the mainstay of treatment. Adequate treatment approach can be very rewarding, bringing prolonged survival. Here we discuss the up-to-date concepts of definition and classification, theoretical views on tumour origin along with practical issues of clinical presentation, diagnostics, treatment and prognosis.

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma induces systemic inflammatory response (SIR), which can be assessed either by ratios between blood cell counts (neutrophil to lymphocyte ratio, NLR; platelet to lymphocyte ratio, PLR) or concentrations of acute phase proteins, clotting factors and albumins. These tests are biologically justified by multiple events including bone marrow activation, development of immune-suppressing immature myeloid cells, generation of pre-metastatic niches and neutrophil extracellular trap formation from externalised DNA network in bidirectional association with platelet activation. Despite biological complexity, clinical assessment of SIR is widely available, patient-friendly and economically feasible. In this chapter, we present a review on NLR, PLR, Glasgow prognostic score and fibrinogen, recently reported to have a prognostic role regarding overall survival, cancer/progression free and cancer-specific survival in early and advanced pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Practical consequences abound, including preference for surgical or combined, active or sparing treatment, as well as prediction of non-resectability or chemotherapy response. In this chapter, we also scrutinise the main controversies including different cut-off levels, hypothetic correlation with tumour burden and morphology, negative findings and discussions on the best marker. Future developments should include elaboration of complex scores as will be described here.

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