Therapy of locally unresectable pancreatic carcinoma: a randomized comparison of high dose (6000 rads) radiation alone, moderate dose radiation (4000 rads + 5-fluorouracil), and high dose radiation + 5-fluorouracil: The Gastrointestinal Tumor Study Group.
One-hundred-ninety-four eligible and evaluable patients with histologically confirmed locally unresectable adenocarcinoma of the pancreas were randomly assigned to therapy with high-dose (6000 rads) radiation therapy alone, to moderate-dose (4000 rads) radiation + 5-fluorouracil (5-FU), and to high-dose radiation plus 5-FU. Median survival with radiation alone was only 51/2 months from date of diagnosis. Both 5-FU-containing treatment regimens produced a highly significant survival improvement when compared with radiation alone. Forty percent of patients treated with the combined regimens were still living at one year compared with 10% of patients treated with radiation only. Survival differences between 4000 rads plus 5-FU and 6000 rads plus 5-FU were not significant with an overall median survival of ten months. Significant prognostic variables, in addition to treatment, were pretreatment performance status and pretreatment CEA level.
D000230:Adenocarcinoma / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D000740:Anemia / Q000209:etiology; D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen / Q000032:analysis; D005260:Female; D005472:Fluorouracil / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009325:Nausea / Q000209:etiology; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy / Q000401:mortality / Q000532:radiotherapy*; D011336:Probability; D011878:Radiotherapy / Q000009:adverse effects; D011879:Radiotherapy Dosage; D013997:Time Factors; D014839:Vomiting / Q000209:etiology
D002272:Carcinoembryonic Antigen; D005472:Fluorouracil