Long-term results of adjuvant gemcitabine plus S-1 chemotherapy after surgical resection for pancreatic carcinoma

Abstract

Background and objectives: This study evaluated long-term outcomes for patients who received adjuvant gemcitabine plus S-1 chemotherapy after resection for pancreatic carcinoma.

Methods: Seventy patients who underwent surgical resection of pancreatic carcinoma were enrolled prospectively into this study. All patients received adjuvant chemotherapy with 10 cycles of gemcitabine plus S-1 every 2 weeks. Each cycle consisted of intravenous gemcitabine 700 mg/m(2) on day 1 and oral S-1 50 mg/m(2) for seven consecutive days, followed by a 1-week pause of chemotherapy. Long-term survival results of adjuvant gemcitabine plus S-1 chemotherapy were analyzed for this cohort.

Results: Median follow-up time was 51.2 months. Sixty percent of patients had node-positive disease and 79% of patients underwent R0 resection. Fifty-six patients (80%) completed adjuvant chemotherapy. Median overall and disease-free survival times were 35.4 and 23.8 months, respectively. Actuarial overall and disease-free survival rates were 89% and 64% at 1 year, 64% and 50% at 2 years, and 33% and 33% at 5 years, respectively. Only negative lymph node metastasis (P = 0.010) independently correlated with long-term survival by multivariate analysis.

Conclusions: Long-term results of adjuvant gemcitabine plus S-1 chemotherapy suggest this regimen may be safe and promising as treatment for this patient population.