title: Triplet cytotoxic chemotherapy with gemcitabine, 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin for advanced pancreatic cancer.
abstract: In advanced or relapsed pancreatic cancer, mono- or duo-therapy has shown modest efficacy at best. The present study evaluated the efficacy of a triplet combination in relapsed or advanced pancreatic cancer. A total of 37 patients with adenocarcinoma of the pancreas in stage III/IV or with relapsed disease were treated with a gemcitabine, 5-fluorouracil and cisplatin (GFP) regimen every 3 weeks. Only 29 out of 37 patients were evaluable for response due to early treatment interruption in 8 patients. The overall response rate was 24.1% and the disease control rate was 68.9%. The progression-free survival (PFS) rate was 61.5, 30.9 and 17.6% at 3, 6 and 9 months, respectively, and the overall survival (OS) rate was 46.5 and 30.6% at 6 and 12 months, respectively. Grade 3/4 leukopenia, neutropenia and thrombocytopenia occurred in 18.4, 29.9 and 24.5% of 147 cycles, respectively. Old age and a poor performance status (PS) were associated with the early discontinuation of chemotherapy (P=0.038 and P=0.036, respectively). In patients <65 years old and with a PS of <2, the median PFS and OS times were 5.3 months and 10.3 months, respectively. Overall, although GFP resulted in acceptable response and survival rates, it does not appear to have marked superiority to gemcitabine-based single or duplet chemotherapy.
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Inje University Sanggye Paik Hospital, Seoul 139-707, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Byeong Seok
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Sohn
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Inje University Sanggye Paik Hospital, Seoul 139-707, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Young Jin
authors.initials: YJ
authors.lastname: Yuh
authors.affiliation: Department of Hematooncology, Dongsan Medical Center, Keimyung University School of Medicine, Daegu 700-712, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Hong Suk
authors.initials: HS
authors.lastname: Song
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, Veterans Health Service Medical Center, Seoul 139-707, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Bong-Seog
authors.initials: BS
authors.lastname: Kim
authors.affiliation: Division of Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, Yeungnam University College of Medicine, Daegu 702-701, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Kyung Hee
authors.initials: KH
authors.lastname: Lee
authors.affiliation: Division of Hematology/Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, Chung-Ang University College of Medicine, Seoul 139-707, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Joung-Soon
authors.initials: JS
authors.lastname: Jang
authors.affiliation: Department of Internal Medicine, College of Medicine, Inje University Sanggye Paik Hospital, Seoul 139-707, Republic of Korea.
authors.forename: Sung Rok
authors.initials: SR
authors.lastname: Kim
keywords: 5-fluorouracil; cisplatin; gemcitabine; overall survival; pancreatic cancer; response