Non-surgical treatment of cancer of the pancreas

Pancreatic cancer is a disease difficult to treat. Diagnosis is late, cancer remaining clinically unapparent even if locally advanced or metastatic. Few patients can be submitted to curative surgery. Even if resection is possible, 5-year survival varies from 0 % to 18 % according to series. Some data suggest that chemotherapy with or without radiotherapy could influence disease free survival but a benefit on overall survival has nor been demonstrated. For locally advanced disease, the results of a trial published in 1968, showed that a combination of radiotherapy and 5-Fluorouracil (5FU) improved median survival as compared to radiotherapy alone (5.5 versus 10 months). Since then, no progress has been achieved. At the present time, survival of patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer cannot be improved. Very recently, a new agent, gemcitabine, has been compared to 5FU. Criteria for activity were based on clinical improvement analgesia consumption, performance status and weight gain. Twenty-four percent of the patients treated with gemcitabine had a clinical benefit as compared to 5 % for those treated with 5FU. Other studies comparing chemotherapy to best supportive care show a significant decrease of depression and anxiety as well as an improvement in quality of life for patients being treated.