Researchers from Germany have reported that adjuvant Gemzar® (gemcitabine) significantly improves disease-free and overall survival of patients with early pancreatic cancer. The details of this study were reported in a late-breaking abstract at the 2008 meeting of the American Society of Clinical Oncology May 30 to June 2 in Chicago.1
There will be an estimated 37,170 new cases of pancreatic cancer diagnosed in the United States in 2007 and 33,370 deaths from the disease. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in this country. Treatment for early pancreatic cancer typically includes surgery to remove as much of the cancer as possible and the administration of adjuvant Gemzar or 5-FU. A recent multicenter U.S. and Canadian trial has shown that the addition of Gemzar to 5-fluorouracil may modestly improve survival among patients undergoing surgery for early pancreatic cancer (see related news).
The current study (CONKO-001), which was initially published in the Journal of the American Medical Association in January of 2007, compared six months of adjuvant Gemzar with observation in patients with early-stage pancreatic cancer.2 This study was carried out between 1998 and 2008 and involved 369 patients. The following table summarizes the main findings of this trial:
| | Gemzar | Placebo |
Median Disease-free Survival | 13.4 months | 6.9 months |
Three-year Disease-free Survival | 23.5% | 8.5% |
Five-year Disease-free Survival | 16.0% | 6.5% |
Median Overall Survival | 22.8 months | 20.2 months |
Three-year Overall Survival | 36.5% | 19.5% |
Five-year overall Survival | 21.0% | 9% |
Comments: These results confirm the effectiveness of adjuvant Gemzar for early pancreatic cancer.
Related News:
Surgery Underused for Early Pancreatic Cancer (10/30/2007)
Trial Shows Benefit of Adjuvant Chemotherapy but not Chemoradiation for Resected Pancreatic Cancer (3/26/2004)
Addition of Gemzar® in Early Pancreatic Cancer May Modestly Improve Survival (3/10/2008)
Reference:
1 Neuhaus P, Riess H, Post K, et al. CONKO-001: Final results of the randomized, prospective, multicenter phase III trial of adjuvant chemotherapy with gemcitabine versus observation in patients with resected pancreatic cancer (PC). Journal of Clinical Oncology. 2008;26:abstract LBA4504.
2 Oettle H, Post S, Neuhaus P, et al. Adjuvant chemotherapy with gemcitabine vs observation in patients undergoing curative-intent resection of pancreatic cancer: a randomized trial. Journal of the American Medical Association. 2007;297:267-277.
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