A phase III trial of pemetrexed plus gemcitabine versus gemcitabine in patients with unresectable or metastatic pancreatic cancer.
BACKGROUND
This randomized phase III study compared the overall survival (OS) of pemetrexed plus gemcitabine (PG) versus standard gemcitabine (G) in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.


METHODS
Patients with unresectable locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer and no prior systemic therapy (including 5-fluorouracil as a radiosensitizer) were randomized to receive either 1,250 mg/m(2) gemcitabine on days 1 and 8 plus pemetrexed 500 mg/m(2) after gemcitabine on day 8 (PG arm) of each 21-day cycle, or gemcitabine 1,000 mg/m(2) on days 1, 8 and 15 of each 28-day cycle (G arm).


RESULTS
Five hundred and sixty-five patients with well-balanced baseline characteristics were randomly assigned (283 PG, 282 G). OS was not improved on the PG arm (6.2 months) compared with the G arm (6.3 months) (P=0.8477). Progression-free survival (3.9 versus 3.3 months; P=0.1109) and time to treatment failure (3 versus 2.2 months; P=0.2680) results were similar. Tumor response rate (14.8% versus 7.1%; P=0.004) was significantly better on the PG arm. Grade 3 or 4 neutropenia (45.1% versus 12.8%), thrombocytopenia (17.9% versus 6.2%), anemia (13.9% versus 2.9%), febrile neutropenia (9.9% versus 0.4%; all P <0.001) and fatigue (15% versus 6.6%; P=0.002) were significantly more common on the PG arm. Four treatment-related deaths occurred on the PG arm and none in the G arm.


CONCLUSIONS
Pemetrexed plus gemcitabine therapy did not improve OS. Single-agent gemcitabine remains the standard of care for advanced pancreatic cancer.
Oettle
H
H
University of Berlin, Berlin, Germany. helmut.oetle@charite.de
Richards
D
D
Ramanathan
R K
RK
van Laethem
J L
JL
Peeters
M
M
Fuchs
M
M
Zimmermann
A
A
John
W
W
Von Hoff
D
D
Arning
M
M
Kindler
H L
HL
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000369:Aged, 80 and over; D000971:Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D003841:Deoxycytidine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D005260:Female; D005971:Glutamates / Q000008:administration & dosage; D006147:Guanine / Q000008:administration & dosage / Q000031:analogs & derivatives; D006801:Humans; D007262:Infusions, Intravenous; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009503:Neutropenia / Q000139:chemically induced; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000473:pathology; D000068437:Pemetrexed; D016019:Survival Analysis; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D000093542:Gemcitabine
D005971:Glutamates; D000068437:Pemetrexed; D003841:Deoxycytidine; D006147:Guanine; D000093542:Gemcitabine