Adjuvant chemotherapy and outcomes in patients with nodal and resection margin‐negative pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: A systematic review and meta‐analysis

Adjuvant Therapy After Upfront Resection of Resectable Pancreatic Cancer: Patterns of Omission and Use-A Prospective Real-Life Study

BACKGROUND

Little is known about adjuvant therapy (AT) omission and use outside of randomized trials. We aimed to assess the patterns of AT omission and use in a cohort of upfront resected pancreatic cancer patients in a real-life scenario.

METHODS

From January 2019 to July 2022, 317 patients with resected pancreatic cancer and operated upfront were prospectively enrolled in this prospective observational trial according to the previously calculated sample size. The association between perioperative variables and the risk of AT omission and AT delay was analyzed using multivariable logistic regression.

RESULTS

Eighty patients (25.2%) did not receive AT. The main reasons for AT omission were postoperative complications (38.8%), oncologist's choice (21.2%), baseline comorbidities (20%), patient's choice (10%), and early recurrence (10%). At the multivariable analysis, the odds of not receiving AT increased significantly for older patients (odds ratio [OR] 1.1, p < 0.001), those having an American Society of Anesthesiologists score ≥II (OR 2.03, p = 0.015), or developing postoperative pancreatic fistula (OR 2.5, p = 0.019). The likelihood of not receiving FOLFIRINOX as AT increased for older patients (OR 1.1, p < 0.001), in the presence of early-stage disease (stage I-IIa vs. IIb-III, OR 2.82, p =0.031; N0 vs. N+, OR 3, p = 0.03), and for patients who experienced postoperative major complications (OR 4.7, p = 0.009). A twofold increased likelihood of delay in AT was found in patients experiencing postoperative complications (OR 3.86, p = 0.011).

CONCLUSIONS

AT is not delivered in about one-quarter of upfront resected pancreatic cancer patients. Age, comorbidities, and postoperative complications are the main drivers of AT omission and mFOLFIRINOX non-use.

CLINICALTRIALS REGISTRATION

NCT03788382.

Tumor Stroma Area and Other Prognostic Factors in Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma Patients Submitted to Surgery

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) has a dense stroma, responsible for up to 80% of its volume. The amount of stroma can be associated with prognosis, although there are discrepancies regarding its concrete impact. The aim of this work was to study prognostic factors for PDAC patients submitted to surgery, including the prognostic impact of the tumor stroma area (TSA). A retrospective study with PDAC patients submitted for surgical resection was conducted. The TSA was calculated using QuPath-0.2.3 software. Arterial hypertension, diabetes mellitus, and surgical complications Clavien-Dindo>IIIa are independent risk factors for mortality in PDAC patients submitted to surgery. Regarding TSA, using >1.9 × 10¹¹ µ² as cut-off value for all stages, patients seem to have longer overall survival (OS) (31 vs. 21 months, p = 0.495). For stage II, a TSA > 2 × 10¹¹ µ² was significantly associated with an R0 resection (p = 0.037). For stage III patients, a TSA > 1.9 × 10¹¹ µ² was significantly associated with a lower histological grade (p = 0.031), and a TSA > 2E + 11 µ² was significantly associated with a preoperative AP ≥ 120 U/L (p = 0.009) and a lower preoperative AST (≤35 U/L) (p = 0.004). Patients with PDAC undergoing surgical resection with preoperative CA19.9 > 500 U/L and AST ≥ 100 U/L have an independent higher risk of recurrence. Tumor stroma could have a protective effect in these patients. A larger TSA is associated with an R0 resection in stage II patients and a lower histological grade in stage III patients, which may contribute to a longer OS.

Comparison of adjuvant gemcitabine plus S-1 with S-1 monotherapy for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: Retrospective real-world data

BACKGROUND

S-1 has been recognized as one of the standard adjuvant chemotherapies for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) in East Asia, but the optimal adjuvant chemotherapy regimen has not been determined. We aimed to compare the efficacy and safety of adjuvant gemcitabine plus S-1 (GS) with S-1 monotherapy for PDAC.

METHODS

Patients with resected PDAC who received adjuvant GS or S-1 chemotherapy in Peking Union Medical College Hospital between May 2014 and May 2022 were reviewed. Data retrieved from medical records were used to evaluate efficacy and toxicity.

RESULTS

A total of 241 patients were included, with 167 receiving GS and 74 receiving S-1. The patients who received GS were generally younger (median [range] age: 62 [36-78] versus 64 [44-87] years, p = 0.004), but chemotherapy began later (median [range] interval between chemotherapy and surgery: 49 [17-125] versus 40 [16-100] days, p < 0.001). The median disease-free survival (DFS, 15.1 versus 15.9 months, p = 0.52) and overall survival (OS, 34.8 versus 27.1 months, p = 0.34) did not differ significantly between the GS and S-1 groups, even after adjustment for the biases. However, the chemotherapy completion rate was higher in the patients treated with S-1 (52.4% versus 75.7%, p = 0.006), while grade 3-4 neutropenia occurred more frequently in the GS group (49.5% versus 18.2%, p = 0.015).

CONCLUSIONS

Adjuvant S-1 monotherapy demonstrated noninferiority to the GS regimen in DFS and OS with better tolerability for PDAC following surgery.

Detecting drug resistance in pancreatic cancer organoids guides optimized chemotherapy treatment

Drug combination therapies for cancer treatment show high efficacy but often induce severe side effects, resulting in dose or cycle number reduction. We investigated the impact of neoadjuvant chemotherapy (neoCTx) adaptions on treatment outcome in 59 patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Resections with tumor-free margins were significantly more frequent when full-dose neoCTx was applied. We determined if patient-derived organoids (PDOs) can be used to personalize poly-chemotherapy regimens by pharmacotyping of treatment-naïve and post-neoCTx PDAC PDOs. Five out of ten CTx-naïve PDO lines exhibited a differential response to either the FOLFIRINOX or the Gem/Pac regimen. NeoCTx PDOs showed a poor response to the neoadjuvant regimen that had been administered to the respective patient in 30% of cases. No significant difference in PDO response was noted when comparing modified treatments in which the least effective single drug was removed from the complete regimen. Drug testing of CTx-naïve PDAC PDOs and neoCTx PDOs may be useful to guide neoadjuvant and adjuvant regimen selection, respectively. Personalizing poly-chemotherapy regimens by omitting substances with low efficacy could potentially result in less severe side effects, thereby increasing the fraction of patients receiving a full course of neoadjuvant treatment. © 2022 The Authors. The Journal of Pathology published by John Wiley & Sons Ltd on behalf of The Pathological Society of Great Britain and Ireland.

Resected Pancreatic Cancer With N2 Node Involvement Is Refractory to Gemcitabine-Based Adjuvant Chemotherapy

Lymphatic metastasis is a major determinant of the outcome of resected pancreatic cancer. Gemcitabine-based adjuvant chemotherapy can improve the outcome of resected pancreatic cancer. However, the efficacy of gemcitabine against pancreatic cancer stratified by nodal involvement is unclear. In this study, patients who had undergone curative resection of pancreatic adenocarcinoma (612 cases) were included. The efficacy of adjuvant gemcitabine-based regimen, stratified by nodal status (negative, positive) or N substage (N0, no nodal involvement; N1, 1-3-node involvement; N2, ≥4-node involvement), was examined. Both the node-negative (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.62, 95% confidence interval [CI], 0.44-0.87, P = .006) and node-positive subgroups (HR = 0.45, 95% CI, 0.33-0.62, P < .001) benefited from gemcitabine-based adjuvant chemotherapy. Patients with N0 (ie, the node-negative subgroup) or N1 (HR = 0.36, 95% CI, 0.25-0.52, P < .001) disease benefited from gemcitabine-based chemotherapy. However, patients with N2 tumors (HR = 0.95, 95% CI, 0.50-1.78, P = .867) had poor response to gemcitabine-based treatment. Therefore, we postulate that resected pancreatic cancer with N2 node involvement is refractory to gemcitabine-based adjuvant chemotherapy. A more intensive adjuvant regimen may be required for N2 subgroup patients.

Possible involvement of HSP70 in pancreatic cancer cell proliferation after heat exposure and impact on RFA postoperative patient prognosis

Purpose

As an alleviative treatment measured in patients with unresectable advanced pancreatic cancer, radiofrequency ablation (RFA) needed more clinical data to prove its advantages and to explore limitations in its utilization. This study was determined to observe the efficacy of RFA, and to explore its impact on perioperative periphery carcinoma as well as the normal pancreatic tissues.

Methods

Clinical data of 32 patients with pancreatic cancer accepted RFA surgery were collected. Followed up patients' pain degree and the changes in serum tumor markers CA19-9 and CA 242 before and after surgery. Ex vivo, gave human pancreatic cancer cell line PANC-1 heat treatment to simulate the heat exposure condition periphery carcinoma was experienced during RFA surgery, and to observe the proliferation rate and HSP70 expression change compared with control group.

Results

Of the 32 patients, 1 died of upper gastrointestinal hemorrhage, and 29 survived for more than 5 months, 2 of which for more than 16 months. The average CA19-9 and CA 242 levels of the patients were significantly decreased in 3 months after surgery (t = 9.873, 5.978, P < 0.001). During in vitro experiments, the proliferation rate of PANC-1 cells after heating was significantly increased, accompanied with the increased HSP70 expression. The addition of HSP70 inhibitor can inhibit the rise of proliferation after heat therapy.

Conclusion

Utilizing RFA treat patients with unresectable advanced pancreatic cancer, could effectively relieve the pain, decline jaundice, and deduce tumor marker levels significantly. However, it failed to extend the long-term survival rate of the patients significantly. This study found that a higher proliferative rate accompanied with a higher HSP70 expression level were observed on in vitro cultured pancreatic carcinoma cells after heat treatment, which could be altered by HSP70 inhibitor. And these findings indicated that the heat exposure might impact periphery carcinoma during RFA surgery and HSP70 might play an important role in patients' prognosis.

Adjuvant treatment for resected pancreatic adenocarcinoma: A systematic review and network meta-analysis

Adjuvant chemotherapy has significantly improved outcomes following surgical resection for pancreatic adenocarcinoma; however, the optimal adjuvant strategy remains unclear. This systematic review and network meta-analysis was conducted to provide indirect comparative evidence across adjuvant chemotherapies. Electronic searches of EMBASE, MEDLINE, Cochrane and ASCO databases were conducted to identify eligible randomized controlled trials (RCT). Direct pairwise meta-analysis was conducted for disease-free survival (DFS), overall-survival (OS) and adverse events (AE). Network meta-analysis of DFS and OS was conducted to evaluate indirect comparisons. Ten publications of eleven RCT met eligibility criteria. Indirect DFS comparison demonstrated superiority of mFOLFIRINOX versus gemcitabine-capecitabine, gemcitabine-erlotinib and gemcitabine-nab-paclitaxel. S-1 demonstrated a DFS benefit versus gemcitabine-capecitabine, gemcitabine-erlotinib, gemcitabine-nab-paclitaxel. OS benefits were demonstrated for mFOLFIRINOX verus gemcitabine-erlotinib and for S-1 versus gemcitabine-based combination with erlotinib, capecitabine and nab-paclitaxel. In conclusion, mFOLFIRINOX is the preferred approach for adjuvant therapy. For mFOLFIRINOX-ineligible patients no additional benefit is seen with gemcitabine-nab-paclitaxel.

Risk Assessment of kINPen Plasma Treatment of Four Human Pancreatic Cancer Cell Lines with Respect to Metastasis

Cold physical plasma has limited tumor growth in many preclinical models and is, therefore, suggested as a putative therapeutic option against cancer. Yet, studies investigating the cells' metastatic behavior following plasma treatment are scarce, although being of prime importance to evaluate the safety of this technology. Therefore, we investigated four human pancreatic cancer cell lines for their metastatic behavior in vitro and in chicken embryos (in ovo). Pancreatic cancer was chosen as it is particularly metastatic to the peritoneum and systemically, which is most predictive for outcome. In vitro, treatment with the kINPen plasma jet reduced pancreatic cancer cell activity and viability, along with unchanged or decreased motility. Additionally, the expression of adhesion markers relevant for metastasis was down-regulated, except for increased CD49d. Analysis of 3D tumor spheroid outgrowth showed a lack of plasma-spurred metastatic behavior. Finally, analysis of tumor tissue grown on chicken embryos validated the absence of an increase of metabolically active cells physically or chemically detached with plasma treatment. We conclude that plasma treatment is a safe and promising therapeutic option and that it does not promote metastatic behavior in pancreatic cancer cells in vitro and in ovo.