Skip to main page content
U.S. flag

An official website of the United States government

Dot gov

The .gov means it’s official.
Federal government websites often end in .gov or .mil. Before sharing sensitive information, make sure you’re on a federal government site.

Https

The site is secure.
The https:// ensures that you are connecting to the official website and that any information you provide is encrypted and transmitted securely.

Access keys NCBI Homepage MyNCBI Homepage Main Content Main Navigation
Review
. 2019 Aug 1:4:56.
doi: 10.21037/tgh.2019.06.09. eCollection 2019.

Palliative chemotherapy in pancreatic cancer-treatment sequences

Rami Abbassi  1 , Hana Algül  1
Affiliations
Review

Palliative chemotherapy in pancreatic cancer-treatment sequences

Rami Abbassi et al. Transl Gastroenterol Hepatol. .

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer belongs to the most deadly malignancies and is expected to become the second deadliest cancer by 2040. Still, in most of the cases the tumor is detected in a nonresectable or metastatic state and, untreated, the disease will progress rapidly. Even with chemotherapeutic treatment the prognosis is poor and the 5-year overall survival rate is less than 10%. Therefore, there is a need for proper therapeutic options for the palliative treatment of the disease. Despite great efforts to find new drugs for the treatment of pancreatic cancer, for a long time the therapy was limited to the use of gemcitabine with very limited benefit. Recently new chemotherapeutic regimens have been identified that helped to improve the overall survival significantly. In addition, even second-line therapies have been established. This review will provide an overview on the current standard of care, discusses possible treatment sequences and offer a perspective on future developments.

Keywords: Pancreatic cancer; palliative chemotherapy; treatment options.

PubMed Disclaimer

Conflict of interest statement

Conflicts of Interest: H Algül: receives honoraria from Servier and Celgene and research funding from Chugai. R Abbassi has no conflicts of interest to declare.

References

    1. Burris HA, 3rd, Moore MJ, Andersen J, et al. Improvements in survival and clinical benefit with gemcitabine as first-line therapy for patients with advanced pancreas cancer: a randomized trial. J Clin Oncol 1997;15:2403-13. 10.1200/JCO.1997.15.6.2403 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Moore MJ, Goldstein D, Hamm J, et al. Erlotinib plus gemcitabine compared with gemcitabine alone in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer: a phase III trial of the National Cancer Institute of Canada Clinical Trials Group. J Clin Oncol 2007;25:1960-6. 10.1200/JCO.2006.07.9525 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Aranda E., Manzano JL, Rivera F, et al. Phase II open-label study of erlotinib in combination with gemcitabine in unresectable and/or metastatic adenocarcinoma of the pancreas: relationship between skin rash and survival (Pantar study). Ann Oncol 2012;23:1919-25. 10.1093/annonc/mdr560 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Conroy T, Desseigne F, Ychou M, et al. FOLFIRINOX versus gemcitabine for metastatic pancreatic cancer. N Engl J Med 2011;364:1817-25. 10.1056/NEJMoa1011923 - DOI - PubMed
    1. Von Hoff DD, Ervin T, Arena FP, et al. Increased survival in pancreatic cancer with nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine. N Engl J Med 2013;369:1691-703. 10.1056/NEJMoa1304369 - DOI - PMC - PubMed