title: Gemcitabine versus gemcitabine combined with cisplatin treatment locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer: a retrospective analysis.
abstract: OBJECTIVE
  Gemcitabine is the most active agent to treat unresectable pancreatic cancer. The superiority of combining other drugs with cisplatin is still controversial; therefore, we performed a retrospective analysis of gemcitabine versus gemcitabine combined with cisplatin to determine the treatment outcomes for patients with locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer.
  
  
  METHODS
  From 2001 to 2007, we enrolled 60 patients who were treated with gemcitabine or gemcitabine combined with cisplatin for locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer. Gemcitabine 1, 000 mg/m(2) (G) was administrated at day 1 and day 8 every 3 weeks. Cisplatin 60 mg/m(2) was added at day 1 every 3 weeks to the gemcitabine schedule (GP).
  
  
  RESULTS
  NUMBER OF G: GP was 34: 26, locally advanced to metastatic ratio was 35% to 65% in group G and 46% to 54% in group GP. Median follow up duration was 29 months. The median number of chemotherapy cycles was 4 (range: 2 approximately 11) for the G group, and 4 (range: 1 approximately 11) for the GP group. The response rate of the G and GP groups was 17% and 11%, respectively. The progression free survival (PFS) was 4.5 months and 2.8 months, respectively, for the G and GP groups. The overall survival (OS) was 10.7 and 8.7 months respectively, for the G and GP groups, but there is no statistically significant difference of the PFS (p=0.2396) and OS (p=0.4643) between the 2 groups. The hematological toxicity profile was similar (the grade III neutropenia and thrombocytopenia was 4.4% and 3.1%, respectively, in G group, and 7.5% and 2.8%, respectively, in the GP group). But non-hematological toxicities such as skin rash, abnormal liver function and nausea/vomiting were observed in 3 patients of the GP group. On the prognostic factor analysis, no factors predicted a longer PFS and OS for both the G and GP groups.
  
  
  CONCLUSIONS
  Gemcitabine single treatment might be more tolerable and it had the same efficacy compared to cisplatin combination treatment in this retrospective study.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Dong-A University College of Medicine, Busan, Korea.
authors.forename: Jae-Hyuk
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Choi
authors.forename: Sung Yong
authors.initials: SY
authors.lastname: Oh
authors.forename: Hyuk-Chan
authors.initials: HC
authors.lastname: Kwon
authors.forename: Jung Hwan
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Jae Hoon
authors.initials: JH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Suee
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Dong Mee
authors.initials: DM
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.forename: Sung-Hyun
authors.initials: SH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Myung Hwan
authors.initials: MH
authors.lastname: Rho
authors.forename: Young-Hoon
authors.initials: YH
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.forename: Mee-Sook
authors.initials: MS
authors.lastname: Rho
authors.forename: Hyo-Jin
authors.initials: HJ
authors.lastname: Kim
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