Dynamic evaluation of postoperative survival in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

The pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma has a high degree of malignancy, and traditional prognostic assessment methods have limited evaluative capacity. This study is based on the Kallikrein-related peptidase 7 (KLK7) expression and uses conditional survival algorithms to perform dynamic survival assessments of patients. The Cox proportional hazards model was employed for identifying and adjusting for potential confounders. The Kaplan–Meier technique was utilized to estimate the overall survival rate. The computation of the likelihood of patients surviving an additional year after X years of survival was achieved using the equation CS1 = OS(X + 1)/OS(X). A subgroup analysis based on CS1 was conducted for each individual risk factor. A total of 243 eligible patients were included in the study. Conditioned survival (CS) refers to the years a patient has already survived and the predicted years they are likely to survive in the future, while conducting a time-varying analysis of the factors influencing prognosis. The survival probability assessed by CS1 increased year by year, with the 1-, 2-, and 3-year survival rates rising from 50.4% to 91.2%. In contrast, the actuarial overall survival (OS) decreased from 81.9% at 1 year to 38.6% at 3 years post-surgery. The results of the conditional analysis indicate that patients who survive longer within a certain timeframe have better survival expectations in the future. Adverse factors, including KLK7, have a decreasing impact on survival over time. Conditional survival analysis based on KLK7 can provide more accurate survival predictions for patients who has identified KLK7.