Aims and background: The prognosis of pancreatic cancer remains poor. Surgery, when feasible, is rarely curative. Radiation therapy (RT) and concomitant 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) have been shown to improve survival in locally advanced pancreatic cancer. In an attempt to improve resectability and disease control, we used preoperative chemoradiation in a combined modality therapy protocol. The purpose of this study was to evaluate our initial results in terms of acute toxicity and response.
Methods: From October 1995 to May 1998, 20 patients (11 males, 9 females; mean age, 60.1 years; median follow-up, 28 months) with unresectable (12 patients) or resectable (8 patients) non-metastatic pancreatic tumors, received external beam radiation (39.6 Gy) plus 5-FU (96 hours continuous infusion, days 1-4 at 1000 mg/m2/day). After 4 weeks, patients were evaluated for surgical resection. In resected patients, electron-beam intraoperative radiation therapy (10 Gy) was given before reconstruction. Thereafter, in resected patients, adjuvant chemotherapy was prescribed (6 courses: 5-FU, mitomycin C, adriamicine).
Results: During chemoradiation, no patients developed grade 3-4 acute toxicity. Three out of twelve (25%) patients with unresectable tumors had tumor downstaging. No patients showed partial or complete responses. Four out of twenty patients (20%) had minimal tumor response. Three patients showed disease progression after chemoradiation (liver or peritoneal metastases). Nine patients underwent surgical resection and IORT, with 1 postoperative death. The median survival time for the 20 patients was 9.4 (18.5 and 8.3 months in resected and unresected patients, respectively).
Conclusion: Our preliminary results suggest that preoperative 5-FU chemoradiation was well tolerated and may result in tumor downstaging but the response-rate is still low. Based on the impact of surgical resection on survival, an improvement in local response rate is necessary.