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The low survival rate from pancreatic cancer is largely due to presentation at an advanced stage and resistance to systemic chemotherapy. Nonetheless, after successful pancreatic surgical resection, postoperative chemotherapy with either fluorouracil (5-FU) or gemcitabine has improved survival compared with surgery alone. But, does one therapy provide more benefits than the other?
To compare outcomes from the two treatments, researchers from the phase III European Study Group for Pancreatic Cancer (ESPAC)-4 trial randomized 1088 postpancreatic cancer resection patients at 159 pancreatic cancer centers in 59 countries. Participants received 24 weeks of either folinic acid (20 mg/m2) plus 5-FU (425 mg/m2 on days 1–5 every 28 days) or gemcitabi…