Treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer with regional chemotherapy plus hemofiltration

Ceravolo

Gemcitabine is considered the gold standard treatment for unresectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Intra-arterial drug administration had shown some interesting results in small phase II studies. In this study, patients were randomly assigned to receive gemcitabine at a dose of 1,000 mg/m2 over 30 minutes intravenously weekly for 7 weeks, followed by 1 week of rest, then weekly for 3 weeks every 4 weeks or FLEC: 5-fluoruracil 1,000 mg/m2, leucovorin 100 mg/m2, epirubicin 60 mg/m2, carboplatin 300 mg/m2 infused bolus intra-arterially into celiac axis at a 3-week interval 3 times or 5-fluorouracil 400 mg/m2 plus folinic acid 20 mg/m2 for 5 days every 4 weeks for 6 cycles. The primary endpoint was overall survival, while time to treatment failure, response rate, clinical benefit response were secondary endpoints. Sixty-seven patients were randomly allocated gemcitabine and 71 were allocated FLEC intra-arterially. Patients treated with FLEC lived for significantly longer than patients on gemcitabine (p=0.036). Survival at 1 year increased from 21% in the gemcitabine group to 35% in the FLEC group. Median survival was 7.9 months in the FLEC group and 5.8 months in the gemcitabine group. Median time to treatment failure was longer with FLEC (5.3 vs 4.2 months for FLEC vs gemcitabine respectively; p=0.013). Clinical benefit was similar in both groups (17.9% for gemcitabine and 26.7% for FLEC; p=NS). CT-scan partial response was similar in both groups (5.9% for gemcitabine and 14% for FLEC; p=NS). Toxicity profiles were different. Compared with gemcitabine, the FLEC regimen given intra-arterially improved survival in patients with unresectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Regional chemotherapy: overview

Regional chemotherapy was developed in the 1950s and continues to play an integral part in the development of newer therapies for advanced solid malignancies. Regional therapies have evolved in complexity but are still based on the pharmacokinetics of drug delivery to solid malignancies. Newer techniques demonstrate that the combination of regional therapies, hyperthermia, and surgery is essential in promoting improved patient outcomes.

Is there a role for chemoradiation in the management of cystadenocarcinoma of the pancreas?

Despite a paucity of data, cystadenocarcinoma of the pancreas has been considered to be resistant to chemoradiation, with a limited effect similar to that of the more common pancreatic adenocarcinoma. We describe a case of a partially excised cystadenocarcinoma with a positive surgical margin that was treated by neoadjuvant chemoradiation. No epithelial elements were found on histologic examination after reresection. Three previous cases of dramatic response of pancreatic cystadenocarcinoma to chemoradiation have been described in the literature. The current dogma alleging poor response of pancreatic cystadenocarcinoma to chemoradiation may be in error.

Regional chemotherapy

Regional chemotherapy is an interesting treatment option in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer but cannot be considered standard treatment, and it should not be performed outside controlled clinical trials. The real value of regional chemotherapy must be evaluated in larger, randomized trials. New drug combinations may reduce the observed side effects and improve tumor response. Gene therapy with p53 and K-ras modulated herpesviruses may become a palliative treatment option and can be administered easily by regional chemotherapy techniques [23].

Regional chemotherapy in the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer--is it relevant?

The treatment of pancreatic cancer is still problematic for physicians. Only 15% of patients present with resectable tumours, and systemic chemotherapy is of limited effectiveness. In order to achieve higher local drug concentrations in the tumour without causing the side-effects of a comparable level of systemic treatment, regional chemotherapy has been introduced as an alternative treatment. Several techniques have been developed over recent years, these include: celiac axis infusion (CAI), CAI with microspheres or haemofiltration, aortic stop flow (ASF) and isolated hypoxic perfusion (IHP). Whilst several authors have reported improved response rates and a prolongation of median survival time, these results have not been confirmed by others. In addition, the incidence of side-effects and the rate of technical complications have been reported to be high during regional chemotherapy. Except for a single trial containing 14 patients, no randomised trial comparing systemic and regional chemotherapy has been conducted. For these reasons, none of the reported treatment regimens can be considered to be standard treatment and in order to evaluate, if regional chemotherapy is indeed superior to systemic chemotherapy, randomised trials must be conducted.

Transcatheter arterial infusion therapy in the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer: a feasibility study

PURPOSE

To evaluate the effects of transcatheter arterial infusion (TAI) therapy in 18 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.

METHODS

The drugs infused were epirubicin 60 mg, mitomycin C 20 mg, and 5-fluorouracil 500 mg. The efficacy of TAI was evaluated by a tumor marker (CA19-9), computed tomography (CT) findings, and postoperative histopathological specimens.

RESULTS

In 10 of 15 cases, the tumor marker level was decreased after TAI therapy. In 6 of 14 cases, CT showed a decrease in the tumor size, and in 1 case, the tumor disappeared completely. In 6 cases the tumor could be resected. Necrosis, fibrosis, and degeneration of cancer cells were seen in 3 of 4 cases for whom a histopathological evaluation was done. The median survival was 11 months. In 17 patients back pain was the chief complaint, and was reduced to a self-controlled level in 10 patients following TAI therapy. No major complications were encountered.

CONCLUSION

TAI appears to be an effective palliative treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer.

Gastric cancer in Asia: progress and controversies in surgical management

Considerable controversy surrounds the management of gastric cancer and this has largely overshadowed recent progress in our understanding of the epidemiology and molecular pathogenesis of the disease, and improvements in diagnostic and staging techniques. Differences identifiable in the molecular pathogenesis of the 'intestinal' and 'diffuse' types of gastric cancer may help to unravel the biological behaviour of variants and ultimately influence therapeutic strategies. Endoscopic ultrasound is well established as being accurate for T staging and the introduction of laparoscopy, with or without ultrasound, is obviating unnecessary laparotomy in non-bleeding, non-obstructed patients. Controversies in surgery encompass the role of laparoscopic surgery in early gastric cancer, the extent of lymphadenectomy including para-aortic nodal dissection, resection of en bloc contiguous organ involvement, pancreatosplenectomy, left upper abdominal evisceration, and modes of reconstruction (pylorus-preserving gastrectomy, pouch formation) to enhance quality of life. Whereas adjuvant chemotherapy does not impact favourably on survival, emphasis has now shifted to neoadjuvant (induction) chemotherapy to downstage the disease. Preoperative regional chemotherapy and intra-operative hyperthermic chemotherapy or irradiation may prove to be of benefit in patients with resectable disease, but some scepticism still exists as to the usefulness of biological response modifiers (e.g. OK432, PSK) for adjuvant treatment. Ethical issues relating to cultural differences in Asia sometimes mitigate against adequate trial design (e.g. a surgery-alone control group or a no adjuvant therapy treatment group may be considered inappropriate) and this has understandably hindered acceptance in Western countries of the value of current management practices in Asia. These issues and the need for ongoing well-conducted randomized trials with prospective subset analysis are now being addressed.

Regional chemotherapy for inoperable pancreatic carcinoma

BACKGROUND

Survival for adenocarcinoma of the pancreatic remains unchanged over the last two decades. The majority of patients (85%) are diagnosed with an inoperable tumor. Patterns of failure reveal that pancreatic cancer involves three compartments: the pancreatic bed and regional lymph nodes, the liver and the peritoneal surfaces. Twelve patients with advanced, unresectable pancreatic cancer, Stage II/III, were treated with regional intra-arterial chemotherapy and extracorporeal hemofiltration directed towards the pancreatic tumor-bearing area and the liver.

METHODS

Five patients had an arterial catheter/port system placed within the celiac axis; the rest had an angiographically placed arterial catheter. All patients had a 16 Fr PFM filtration catheter inserted in the vena cava positioning the tip at the level of the diaphragm and then connected to a hemofiltration unit. Mitomycin C was infused over 25 minutes followed by 5-FU over 10 minutes. The hemofiltration was begun before the drug infusion and continued for 70 minutes. The twelve patients underwent 33 cycles of regional chemotherapy plus hemofiltration.

RESULTS

Five patients had a partial response (45.5%), five had stable disease (45.5%), and one had progression (9%). Four patients were re-explored with one patient undergoing a curative resection. The average survival for patients with unresectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma is 13 months. Tumor implantation and progression on the peritoneal surfaces remains the major site of treatment failure.

CONCLUSIONS

Regional chemotherapy plus hemofiltration with MMC and 5-FU appears to improve the response of Stage II/III inoperable pancreatic cancer and can convert some patients to resectability without significant complications and with no mortality.