Adding Radiation to Gemcitabine Improved Survival in Pancreatic Cancer

Patients with locally advanced disease achieved longer overall survival and superior disease control, but questions remain.

Despite the high fatality rate of pancreatic cancer, treatment progress has been made recently, such as in validating the use of adjuvant chemotherapy after primary tumor resection and improving response and survival with multiagent chemotherapy in metastatic disease. However, the role of radiation therapy in unresectable pancreatic cancer is unclear, given the mixed results in trials of radiation plus chemotherapy versus chemotherapy alone.

Investigators have now conducted an industry-supported, randomized trial involving patients with locally advanced and unresectable pancreatic cancer who received either gemcitabine alone (1000 mg/m² weekly for 6 weeks on and 1 off and then weekly for 3 weeks on and 1 off) or radiation (50.4 Gy in 1.8 Gy …

Reviewing Author

David H. Ilson, MD, PhD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardAstraZeneca; Merck; Taiho; Astellas; Bristol Myers Squibb; Regeneron; Oncolys; Amgen; Daiichi Sankyo

David H. Ilson, MD, PhD

Disclosures

Consultant/Advisory BoardAstraZeneca; Merck; Taiho; Astellas; Bristol Myers Squibb; Regeneron; Oncolys; Amgen; Daiichi Sankyo