Pathological outcomes of pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PA) after preoperative high biological effective dose (BED) magnetic resonance image-guided radiation therapy (MRgRT)

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Background: Pre-operative radiotherapy (RT) for PA has the potential to reduce positive surgical margin rates and increase pathologic tumor response, which has been associated with improved survival. Increasing the BED can improve local control and overall survival for patients with unresectable PA. Use of stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) to achieve a higher BED has been limited by toxicity to adjacent radiosensitive structures, but this can be mitigated by MRgRT. We describe our use of MRgRT prior to potentially curative resection of localized PA. Methods: We performed a single institution retrospective analysis of all patients with localized PA who received high BED SBRT on the MR Linac followed by surgical resection with curative intent. Toxicity was evaluated according to Common Terminology Criteria for Adverse Events, version 5.0. Tumor response was evaluated according to the College of American Pathologists tumor regression grading criteria (CAP-TRG), ranging from CAP 0 indicating pathologic complete response to CAP grade 3 indicating no response. Ordinal logistic regression model was used to assess the association between time from RT to surgery and TRG. Follow up included MRI or CT scans at least every three months. Results: We analyzed 26 patients with borderline resectable (80.8%), locally advanced (11.5%), and resectable (7.7%) tumors who received high BED MRgRT followed by surgical resection. Median age at diagnosis was 68 years (34 - 86). Most patients received chemotherapy (80.8%) prior to RT, with 81% of these receiving FOLFINIRNOX and 19% receiving gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel. All patients received MR-guided high BED SBRT to a median dose of 50 Gy (40 - 50) in 5 fractions. On-table adaptive replanning was performed in 88% of patients, with 74% having all 5 fractions adapted. No acute grade 2+ toxicity associated with RT was observed. The median time to resection was 50 days (37 – 115), and the procedure types included: Whipple (69%), distal (23%), or total pancreatectomy (8%). The R0 resection rate was 96% and no perioperative deaths occurred within 90 days. Complete (0) or near-complete (1) pathologic response was observed in 35% of cases and the time from RT to surgery was positively associated with TRG (R2= 0.22, p = 0.0003). The median follow-up after RT was 16.5 months (3.9- 26.2) during which 9 patients recurred, and 3 patients died of disease. The derived median progression-free survival from RT was 13.2 months. Conclusions: These initial pathology outcomes following high BED MR-guided SBRT are encouraging and suggest that the time from SBRT to surgical resection is associated with response. This finding is consistent with results from other preoperative GI tumor sites and results from prospective studies using high BED SBRT with MRI guidance in combined modality therapy against PA are eagerly awaited.