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. 2023 Jan 9;31(2):100.
doi: 10.1007/s00520-022-07564-8.

Systemic oncological treatments in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer: a scoping review and evidence map

Josefina Salazar  1 , Javier Bracchiglione  1   2   3 , Roberto Acosta-Dighero  2 , Nicolas Meza  2 , Adriana-G Meade  1 , María Jesús Quintana  1   4 , Carolina Requeijo  1 , Gerardo Rodríguez-Grijalva  1 , Marilina Santero  1 , Anna Selva  4   5 , Ivan Solà  1   3   4 , Xavier Bonfill  6   7   8 ; Appropriateness of Systemic Oncological Treatments for Advanced Cancer (ASTAC) Research Group
Collaborators, Affiliations

Systemic oncological treatments in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer: a scoping review and evidence map

Josefina Salazar et al. Support Care Cancer. .

Abstract

Purpose: To identify, describe, and organise currently available evidence regarding systemic oncological treatments (SOTs) (chemotherapy, targeted/biological therapies, and immunotherapy) compared to best supportive care (BSC) for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer (PC).

Methods: We conducted a scoping review and evidence mapping, adhering to PRISMA-ScR checklist. We searched MEDLINE, EMBASE, Cochrane Library, Epistemonikos, PROSPERO, and clinicaltrials.gov for eligible studies. We included systematic reviews (SRs), randomised controlled trials (RCTs), quasi-experimental, and observational studies evaluating SOTs compared to BSC or no treatment in patients with advanced PC. Two independent reviewers performed the screening process and data extraction. We developed evidence maps as an interactive visualization display, including the assessed interventions and outcomes.

Results: Of the 50,601 records obtained from our search, we included 43 studies: 2 SRs, 16 RCTs, 4 quasi-experimental studies, 20 observational studies, and 1 protocol for a quasi-experimental study. Forty-two studies reported survival-related outcomes and most favoured SOTs, while five reported toxicity and most favoured BSC. Other patient-centred outcomes, such as quality of life, were scarcely reported.

Conclusions: This study highlights the current evidence gaps in studies assessing treatments for patients with advanced PC, mainly the lack of reports of non-survival-related outcomes, pointing out research areas that need further attention to make better recommendations for these patients.

Keywords: Antineoplastic agents; Immunotherapy; Pancreatic neoplasms; Review literature as topic.

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Conflict of interest statement

The authors declare no competing interests.

Figures

Fig. 1
Fig. 1
PRISMA flowchart
Fig. 2
Fig. 2
Evidence gap map of Systemic Oncological Treatments in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer
Fig. 3
Fig. 3
Direction of the effects reported by each study for each outcome. OBS observational study; Q-Exp quasi-experimental study; RCT randomised clinical trial; SR systematic review; OS overall survival; PFS progression-free survival; m months; FS functional status; QoL quality of life; QoD quality of death; FI favours intervention (Systemic Oncological Treatment); ND no differences; FC favours comparison (Best Supportive Care/placebo/not specified); NR not reported. TGISG  The Gastrointestinal Study Group
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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