[Multidisciplinary Therapy for Unresectable Pancreatic Cancer]

Gan To Kagaku Ryoho. 2020 Sep;47(9):1331-1335.
[Article in Japanese]

Abstract

The treatment outcomes of unresectable pancreatic cancer(URPC)have improved due to the advent of gemcitabine with nab-paclitaxel(GnP)and FOLFIRINOX as first-line therapy. There have been increasing reports of URPC responding to chemotherapy or chemoradiation and that conversion surgery(CS)can help to achieve long-term survival. This study aims to assess the treatment outcomes of URPC in our department and consider CS adaptation. Thirty-six patients with URPC who were treated with GnP or FOLFIRINOX between 2015 and 2018 were included in this retrospective analysis. Thirty-five patients had GnP, while 1 patient had FOLFIRINOX. The median age of the patients was 68.0 years and included 17 males and 19 females. Twenty-eight of the tumors were located in the pancreas head and 8 in the body-tail. Twenty-one cases were locally advanced(UR-LA), and 15 cases had distant metastases(UR-M). CS was performed in 9 cases(25.0%). The 2-year survival rate for patients that underwent CS was 53.3%, and 34.1% for patients that did not undergo CS. The prognosis of patients who underwent CS tended to be better, but there was no significant difference(p=0.141). In the patients that underwent CS, there were cases of early recurrence in which the period of preoperative chemotherapy was short, and the tumor markers were not normalized. Therefore, it is thought that prolonging preoperative treatment could help to select more suitable patients for CS.

MeSH terms

  • Aged
  • Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols* / therapeutic use
  • Chemoradiotherapy
  • Female
  • Humans
  • Male
  • Pancreatic Neoplasms* / drug therapy
  • Retrospective Studies
  • Treatment Outcome