Gemcitabine treatment in patients with inoperable locally advanced/metastatic pancreatic cancer and prognostic factors.
OBJECTIVE
Most patients with pancreatic cancer show an inoperable locally advanced/ metastatic tumour at the time of diagnosis. The present study was aimed at determining the prognostic factors in patients with advanced pancreatic carcinoma treated with gemcitabine.


METHODS
Sixty-seven unresectable or metastatic pancreatic cancer patients treated with gemcitabine were included in the study and a total of 258 cycles of treatment were applied.


RESULTS
The overall response rate was 5%. Thirty-one percent of the patients had stable disease, whereas progressive disease was seen in 49%. Clinical benefit response rate was 15%. The median duration of response was 7.3 months. Median progression-free survival was 3 months, while median overall survival was 9 months. Univariate analysis revealed that worse results were found in patients with performance status (PS) = 2, and in patients with primary tumour location in the body or tail of the pancreas (p<0.05). Multivariate analysis of data revealed that the most important factor was PS of the patient, as the patients with PS = 2 had worse results than the patients with PS = 0-1 (p<0.05).


CONCLUSIONS
Low PS is a negative predictive factor for the survival of patients with advanced pancreatic carcinoma treated with gemcitabine.
Sezgin
Canfeza
C
Ege University School of Medicine, Department of Internal Medicine, Division of Medical Oncology, Bornova/Izmir, Turkey.
Karabulut
Bulent
B
Uslu
Ruchan
R
Sanli
Ulus A
UA
Goksel
Gamze
G
Yuzer
Yildiray
Y
Goker
Erdem
E
D000328:Adult; D000368:Aged; D000964:Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic / Q000627:therapeutic use*; D002277:Carcinoma / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D003841:Deoxycytidine / Q000031:analogs & derivatives* / Q000627:therapeutic use; D018572:Disease-Free Survival; D005260:Female; D005500:Follow-Up Studies; D006305:Health Status Indicators; D006801:Humans; D008297:Male; D008875:Middle Aged; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000188:drug therapy* / Q000401:mortality / Q000473:pathology; D012189:Retrospective Studies; D015996:Survival Rate; D016896:Treatment Outcome; D000093542:Gemcitabine
D000964:Antimetabolites, Antineoplastic; D003841:Deoxycytidine; D000093542:Gemcitabine