Rationale and appropriate use of chemotherapy and radiotherapy for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Controversies in the management of borderline resectable proximal pancreatic adenocarcinoma with vascular involvement

Synchronous major vessel resection during pancreaticoduodenectomy (PD) for borderline resectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma remains controversial. In the 1970s, regional pancreatectomy advocated by Fortner was associated with unacceptably high morbidity and mortality rates, with no impact on long-term survival. With the establishment of a multidisciplinary approach, improvements in preoperative staging techniques, surgical expertise, and perioperative care reduced mortality rates and improved 5-year-survival rates are now achieved following resection in high-volume centres. Perioperative morbidity and mortality following PD with portal vein resection are comparable to standard PD, with reported 5-year-survival rates of up to 17%. Segmental resection and reconstruction of the common hepatic artery/proper hepatic artery (CHA/PHA) can be performed to achieve an R0 resection in selected patients with limited involvement of the CHA/PHA at the origin of the gastroduodenal artery (GDA). PD with concomitant major vessel resection for borderline resectable tumours should be performed when a margin-negative resection is anticipated at high-volume centres with expertise in complex pancreatic surgery. Where an incomplete (R1 or R2) resection is likely neoadjuvant treatment with systemic chemotherapy followed by chemoradiation as part of a clinical trial should be offered to all patients.

Sp1, a new biomarker that identifies a subset of aggressive pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is one of the leading causes of cancer-related deaths in the United States. Sp1 is a sequence-specific DNA binding protein that is important in the transcription of a number of regulatory genes involved in cancer cell growth, differentiation, and metastasis. In this study, we investigated Sp1 expression in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and its association with clinical outcome. We studied 42 patients with primary pancreatic adenocarcinoma. The expression of Sp1 in pancreatic adenocarcinoma was evaluated by immunohistochemical staining. All 42 patients had clinical follow-up information and were evaluated for survival. Sp1 protein was aberrantly overexpressed in a subset of primary pancreatic adenocarcinoma. These tumors all developed metastasis, whereas none of the primary tumors without lymph node metastasis showed Sp1 overexpression. Statistically, Sp1 overexpression was associated with higher stage, higher grade, and lymph node metastasis (P < 0.001, P = 0.036, and P < 0.0001, respectively). Additionally, patients of this subset had a much shorter overall survival than patients without Sp1 overexpression, as evidenced by Kaplan-Meier plots and the log-rank test (P = 0.002). The 5-year overall survival rate was 19% in patients with Sp1 overexpression, compared with 55% in patients without Sp1 overexpression. The median survival was only 13 months for patients with Sp1 overexpression, compared with 65 months for patients without Sp1 overexpression. In conclusion, Sp1 is a new biomarker that identifies a subset of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma with aggressive clinical behavior. It can be used at initial diagnosis of pancreatic adenocarcinoma to identify patients with an increased probability of cancer metastasis and much shortened overall survival.

Multimodality therapy for pancreatic cancer

Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy can be administered safely to patients with pancreatic cancer. Complete pathologic responses are rare, however, and the benefits of this approach compared with standard adjuvant therapy are uncertain. The only way to evaluate the efficacy of neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy is a prospective trial involving a uniform patient population comparing the results of neoadjuvant and adjuvant therapy and a cohort receiving surgery alone. Such a study can be designed in an ethically sound manner but requires the collaboration of numerous institutions and careful coordination to achieve statistically conclusive results. The future of pancreatic cancer research rests on the availability and rapid transfer of new therapies from the laboratory to clinical research.