Gemcitabine and Oxaliplatin Combination Chemotherapy for Patients with Refractory Pancreatic Cancer

Objective: The aim of this study was to investigate the effect of gemcitabine and oxaliplatin combination chemotherapy on refractory pancreatic cancer. Methods: Patients with advanced pancreatic cancer refractory to gemcitabine and S-1 were treated with gemcitabine 1,000 mg/m(2) over 30 min and oxaliplatin 85 mg/m(2) over 120 min on days 1 and 15. Treatment was repeated every 4 weeks and tumor response was assessed every two cycles by RECIST version 1.0. Results: Twenty-two patients with pathologically confirmed pancreatic cancer were enrolled. The treatment was administered as a second-line chemotherapy in eighteen patients (82%) and as a third-line chemotherapy in four patients (18%). Tumor response did not occur in any of the cases. Thirteen patients demonstrated stable diseases, and the disease control rate was 59%. Median overall survival and time to progression were 6.8 months (95% CI, 2.8-11.5) and 2.6 months (95% CI, 1.5-3.8), respectively. Median overall survival from the first-line chemotherapy was 22.7 months (95% CI, 14.8-24.4). The major grade 3/4 adverse events included neutropenia (14%), anorexia (23%), and peripheral neuropathy (14%). Conclusions: Gemcitabine and oxaliplatin combination chemotherapy was tolerable but had limited activity in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer in a refractory setting. Copyright (C) 2011 S. Karger AG, Basel