Prognostic factors in patients with metastatic or recurrent pancreatic cancer treated with first-line nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine: implication of inflammation-based scores

Background Nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine (AG) is standard first-line chemotherapy for patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer (mPC). However, prognostic factors for patients with mPC treated with AG, are largely unknown. We retrospectively identified prognostic factors, including inflammation-based prognostic scores, in patients with mPC, and recurrent pancreatic cancer treated with AG as first-line treatment. Method A total of 203 patients with histologically-confirmed recurrent or metastatic pancreatic cancer who were treated with first-line AG in Asan Medical Center, Seoul, Korea, between February 2016 and December 2016 were included in this analysis. As inflammation-based scores, baseline neutrophil-lymphocyte ratio (NLR), platelet-lymphocyte ratio (PLR) and modified Glasgow prognostic scores (mGPS) were tested. Result Median age was 62years and 116 patients (57%) were male. With median follow-up duration of 21.5months, median progression-free survival (PFS) was 7.1 (95% CI 6.2-7.9) months, and overall survival (OS) was 15.1 (95% CI 12.6-17.6) months. In the multivariate analysis, PFS was significantly associated with liver metastasis (HR 1.43), distant lymph node metastasis (HR 1.48), and elevated CA19-9 (HR 1.56). In multivariate analysis for OS, elevated CA19-9 (HR 1.75), liver metastasis (HR 1.76), distant lymph node metastasis (HR 1.41), and high mGPS (mGPS 1 vs.0: HR 1.64) were independent prognostic factors. NLR and PLR were not significantly associated with PFS and OS. Conclusion Among the inflammation based prognostic scores, mGPS was a reliable prognostic indicator that could stratify survival outcomes in patients with recurrent or mPC who received AG as first-line chemotherapy.