Chemotherapy after surgery is useful in pancreatic cancer

Reported by Susan Aldridge, PhD, medical journalist

Gemcitabine delays the recurrence of pancreatic cancer following surgery, according to a new study.
Pancreatic cancer, the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the US, is very difficult to treat successfully. Indeed, the mortality rate is as high as 98 per cent. Surgery is the usual treatment, but the outlook is still often poor. Researchers in Berlin now report on how the prognosis can be improved by adding chemotherapy to surgery.

They treated 179 patients in Germany and Austria with gemcitabine and another 175 received no chemotherapy. Follow up time was about 4.5 years. Cancer recurred in 74.3 per cent of those in the gemcitabine group and 92 per cent of the control group. The estimated disease-free survival time was 13.4 months in the gemcitabine group, compared to only 6.9 months in the control group. Disease-free survival at three and five years was 23.5 per cent and 16.5 per cent in the gemcitabine group and 7.5 and 5.5 per cent in the control group, respectively. But there was no difference in overall survival between the two groups. The researchers conclude that adding gemcitabine to surgery offers the best chance of prolonging survival in pancreatic cancer, without compromising quality of life.

Source
Journal of the American Medical Association 17th January 2007 Volume 297 pages 267-277

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