Public Health France estimates that around 11,300 the number of new cases of pancreatic cancer in France. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma accounts for 90 to 95% of the forms of this cancer. During the 2018 Asco congress, Prof. Thierry Conroy, specialist oncologist digestive cancersand Director General of the Lorraine Cancer Institute, presented the results of a Franco-Canadian study evaluating the effects of a new precautionary chemotherapy in patients operated on for ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas.
This study evaluated the efficacy of a multidrug therapy, folfirinox (oxaliplatin, folinic acid, irinotecan and 5-fluorouracil) compared to the standard treatment, gemcitabine, in 493 patients from 77 centers in France and Canada. All had been operated on for localized pancreatic cancer to remove their tumor. They then received an adjuvant treatment for 6 months with gemcitabine or folfirinox in order to eliminate the residual cancer cells.
A 9-month follow-up before the onset of a recurrence
The median follow-up of patients is 33.6 months, which is sufficient to estimate the effectiveness of the two treatments. For patients who received folfirinox in addition to surgery, the median time to the onset of a possible recurrence decreased by 9 months compared to patients who received the reference treatment with gemcitabine. Likewise, the median time before the appearance of any metastases was reduced by more than a year (30.4 compared to 17.7 months).
Overall survival increased significantly, with that of patients who received folfirinox being 19.4 months longer than that of patients treated with gemcitabine (54.4 months versus 35.0 months).
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“For the first time, a combination of chemotherapies shows a marked benefit in adjuvant treatment of pancreatic cancer compared to to standard chemotherapy, gemcitabine. This results in particular in a significant increase in patient survival. We were pleased to see that the results of this study were better than what we expected when we developed the trial in 2012 “ indicates Professor Thierry Conroy.
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