Pre-operative chemoradiotherapy may improve survival

<p class="article-intro">A randomized phase-III-trial found that people who received chemoradiotherapy before pancreatic cancer surgery had better disease-free survival than those who started their treatment with surgery. In addition, the two-year survival rate was higher for those who received chemoradiotherapy before surgery (42 % vs. 30 % ). </p> <hr /> <p class="article-content"><p>The PREOPANC-1 trial enrolled 246 patients with pancreatic cancer that can be surgically removed. The patients were randomly assigned to receive immediate surgery or chemoradiotherapy for 10 weeks, followed by surgery. Both treatment groups also received chemotherapy after surgery, and the total amount of chemotherapy given was equal in both groups (the chemoradiotherapy group received part of the chemotherapy before surgery and the rest after).</p> <p>The median overall survival was 17,1 months with preoperative chemoradiotherapy compared to 13,7 months (p=0,074) with immediate surgery. The time until pancreatic cancer recurrence was longer with preoperative therapy, as well (9,9 months vs. 7,9 months; p=0,023). The chance of surviving longer than two years was also higher with pre-operative treatment than with immediate surgery (42 % vs. 30 % ). In the subset of patients in which the tumor was surgically removed successfully, the difference in median survival was even greater: 42,1 months with preoperative treatment vs. 16,8 months with immediate surgery. <br />Resection was performed in 72 % of patients in the immediate surgery group and 62 % in the chemoradiotherapy group. Among the patients who had a resection, the tumor was microscopically completely removed in a greater proportion of patients who received preoperative treatment (63 % vs. 31 % ).</p> <p>According to the authors, after the final analysis and publication of this trial, the next step is to attempt to find even more effective preoperative treatments. FOLFIRINOX chemotherapy or FOLFIRINOX combined with stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) appear promising from other studies and should be tested against pre-operative gemcitabine and radiation in a randomized clinical trial.</p> <p><strong>Reference:</strong> <br />van Tienhoven G et al.: Preoperative chemoradiotherapy versus immediate surgery for resectable and borderline resectable pancreatic cancer (PREOPANC-1) : A randomized, controlled, multicenter phase III trial. ASCO Annual Meeting 2018, abstract #LBA4002</p></p>