Purpose: The aim of this study was to verify prognostic factors including sarcopenia in patients with recurrent or metastatic pancreatic cancer receiving gemcitabine-based chemotherapy.
Materials and methods: Medical records and computed tomography scan of consecutive patients treated with palliative gemcitabine-based chemotherapy from 2008 to 2014 were reviewed. The lumbar skeletal muscle index at third lumbar spine level was computed, and together with clinicolaboratory factors, univariate and multivariable analyses for overall survival (OS) were performed.
Results: A total of 88 patients were found. Median age was 65 years, and male patients were predominant (67.0%). Most patients had initially metastatic disease (72.7%), and gemcitabine monotherapy was administered in 29 patients (33.0%) while gemcitabine plus erlotinib was administered in 59 patients (67.0%). Seventy-six patients (86.3%) had sarcopenia. With a median follow-up period of 44.3 months (range, 0.6 to 44.3 months), median OS was 5.35 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 4.11 to 6.59). In univariate and multivariable analysis, high carcinoembryonic antigen level (hazard ratio [HR], 4.18; 95% CI, 1.95 to 8.97; p < 0.001), initially metastatic disease (HR, 3.37; 95% CI, 1.55 to 7.32; p=0.002), sarcopenia (HR, 2.97; 95% CI, 1.20 to 7.36; p=0.019), neutrophilia (HR, 2.94; 95% CI, 1.27 to 6.79; p=0.012), and high lactate dehydrogenase level (HR, 1.96; 95% CI, 1.07 to 3.58; p=0.029) were identified as independent prognostic factors for OS.
Conclusion: Five independent prognostic factors in patients with recurrent or metastatic pancreatic cancer who received gemcitabine-based chemotherapy were identified. These findings may be helpful in prediction of prognosis in clinical practice and can be used as a stratification factor for clinical trials.
Keywords: Drug therapy; Gemcitabine; Pancreatic neoplasms; Prognosis; Sarcopenia.