Thursday 16 June 2016

Adjuvant combination therapy improves survival in pancreatic cancer

June 16, 2016 - The results from the ESPAC-4, a multicenter, international, open-label randomised controlled phase III trial of adjuvant combination chemotherapy of gemcitabine / capecitabine versus monotherapy gemcitabine in patients with resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma show a statistically significant 2.5 months improvement in survival in favour of combination regimen. The results were presented in the oral abstract session on Gastrointestinal (Noncolorectal) Cancer by Dr John Neoptolemos during the ASCO Annual Meeting 2016 (3-7 June, Chicago US).

Gemcitabine is the standard of care in this setting. Previously, the ESPAC-3 trial compared adjuvant gemcitabine with 5-fluorouracil / folinic acid (5-FU/FA) for resected pancreatic cancer; gemcitabine regimen achieved similar survival with less toxicity. ESPAC-4 aimed to determine whether combination chemotherapy with gemcitabine / capecitabine improve survival compared to gemcitabine alone. Read more here.

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