Stage III Pancreatic Cancer

Current Clinical Trials

Note: Some citations in the text of this section are followed by a level of evidence. The PDQ editorial boards use a formal ranking system to help the reader judge the strength of evidence linked to the reported results of a therapeutic strategy. (Refer to the PDQ summary on Levels of Evidence for more information.)

Patients with stage III pancreatic cancer have tumors that are technically unresectable because of local vessel impingement or invasion by tumor. These patients may benefit from palliation of biliary obstruction by endoscopic, surgical, or radiological means.[1] A significant proportion of patients approaching one-third of all patients with pancreatic cancer will present with stage III or locally advanced disease. While stage III and stage IV pancreatic cancer are both incurable, the natural history of stage III (locally advanced) disease may be different than it is for stage IV disease. An autopsy series demonstrated that 30% of patients presenting with stage III disease died without evidence of distant metastases.[2][Level of evidence: 1iiA] Therefore, investigators have struggled with the question of whether chemoradiation for patients presenting with stage III disease is worthwhile.

Prior to 2000, several phase III trials evaluated combined modality therapy versus radiation therapy alone. Prior to the use of gemcitabine for patients with locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer, investigators from the GITSG randomly assigned 106 patients with locally advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma to receive external beam radiation therapy (EBRT) (60 Gy) alone or to receive concurrent EBRT (either 40 Gy or 60 Gy) plus bolus fluorouracil (5-FU).[3][Level of evidence: 1iiA] The study was stopped early when the chemoradiation therapy arms were found to have better efficacy. The 1-year survival was 11% for patients who received EBRT alone compared with 38% for patients who received chemoradiation with 40 Gy and 36% for patients who received chemoradiation with 60 Gy. After an additional 88 patients were enrolled in the combined modality arms, there was a trend toward improved survival with 60 Gy EBRT plus 5-FU, but the difference in time-to-progression and overall survival (OS) was not statistically significant when compared to the 40 Gy arm.[7] In contrast, investigators from the ECOG randomly assigned 114 patients to radiation therapy (59.4 Gy) alone or with concurrent infusional 5-FU (1,000 mg/m² daily on days 2 through 5 and days 28 through 31) plus mitomycin (10 mg/m² on day 2) and found no difference in OS between the two groups.[4]

As it became clear that radiation therapy alone was an inadequate treatment, investigators evaluated combined modality approaches versus chemotherapy alone. Investigators from the FFCD-SFRO randomly assigned 119 patients to induction chemoradiation therapy (60 Gy in 2 Gy fractions with 300 mg/m²/day of continuous infusion 5-FU on days 1 through 5 for 6 weeks and 20 mg/m²/day of cisplatin on days 1 through 5 during weeks 1 and 5) or induction gemcitabine (1,000 mg/m² weekly for 7 weeks).[8][Level of evidence: 1iiA] Maintenance gemcitabine was administered to both groups until stopped by disease progression or treatment discontinuation as a result of toxicity. Median survival was superior in the gemcitabine arm (13 vs. 8.6 months, P = .03).

Nonhematological grade 3 to 4 toxicities (primarily gastrointestinal) were significantly more common in the chemoradiation arm (44% vs. 18%, P = .004), and fewer patients completed at least 75% of induction therapy (42% vs. 73%). Nonetheless, the survival benefit persisted in a per-protocol analysis of patients receiving at least 75% of planned therapy. Notably, the dose intensity of maintenance gemcitabine was significantly less in the chemoradiation arm because of a greater incidence of grade 3 to 4 hematological toxicities (71% vs. 27%, P = .0001). As a result of this study, induction chemoradiation has fallen out of favor.

The results of the FFCD study stand in contrast to the results of a study from ECOG where investigators randomly assigned 74 patients to either gemcitabine alone or gemcitabine with radiation followed by gemcitabine.[6] Of note, the study was closed early as the result of poor accrual. The primary endpoint was survival, which was 9.2 months (95% CI, 7.9–11.4 months) and 11.1 months (95% CI, 7.6–15.5 months) for chemotherapy and combined modality therapy, respectively (one-sided P = .017 by stratified log-rank test). Grade 4 and 5 toxicity was greater in the chemoradiation arm than in the chemotherapy arm (41% vs. 9%).

Given the increased toxicity of chemoradiation and the early development of metastatic disease in a large percentage of patients with stage III pancreatic cancer, investigators are pursuing a strategy of selecting patients with localized disease for chemoradiation. With this strategy, the selected patients have an absence of progressive disease locally or systemically after several months of chemotherapy. A retrospective analysis of 181 patients enrolled in prospective phase II and III GERCOR studies revealed that 29% had metastatic disease after three months of gemcitabine-based chemotherapy. For the remaining 71%, median OS was significantly longer among patients treated with chemoradiation compared to additional chemotherapy (15.0 months vs. 11.7 months, P = .0009).[9][Level of evidence: 3iiiA] Taken together, the FFCD and GERCOR studies provide support for gemcitabine-based chemotherapy for at least 3 months, followed by chemoradiation in the absence of metastatic disease. This approach has yet to be validated in a prospective phase III trial.

Standard treatment options:

1. Palliative surgical biliary and/or gastric bypass, percutaneous radiologic biliary stent placement, or endoscopic biliary stent placement.[10,11]

2. Chemotherapy with gemcitabine.

3. Chemoradiation followed by chemotherapy.

4. Chemotherapy followed by chemoradiation for patients without metastatic disease.

Treatment options under clinical evaluation:

1. For patients with technically unresectable tumors, clinical trials evaluating novel agents in combination with chemotherapy or chemoradiation therapy (RTOG-PA-0020 is one example).

2. Intraoperative radiation therapy and/or implantation of radioactive sources.[12,13]

Check for U.S. clinical trials from NCI's list of cancer clinical trials that are now accepting patients with stage III pancreatic cancer. The list of clinical trials can be further narrowed by location, drug, intervention, and other criteria.

General information about clinical trials is also available from the NCI Web site.

References

1. Sohn TA, Lillemoe KD, Cameron JL, et al.: Surgical palliation of unresectable periampullary adenocarcinoma in the 1990s. J Am Coll Surg 188 (6): 658-66; discussion 666-9, 1999.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
2. Iacobuzio-Donahue CA, Fu B, Yachida S, et al.: DPC4 gene status of the primary carcinoma correlates with patterns of failure in patients with pancreatic cancer. J Clin Oncol 27 (11): 1806-13, 2009.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
3. A multi-institutional comparative trial of radiation therapy alone and in combination with 5-fluorouracil for locally unresectable pancreatic carcinoma. The Gastrointestinal Tumor Study Group. Ann Surg 189 (2): 205-8, 1979.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
4. Cohen SJ, Dobelbower R Jr, Lipsitz S, et al.: A randomized phase III study of radiotherapy alone or with 5-fluorouracil and mitomycin-C in patients with locally advanced adenocarcinoma of the pancreas: Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group study E8282. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 62 (5): 1345-50, 2005.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
5. Chauffert B, Mornex F, Bonnetain F, et al.: Phase III trial comparing initial chemoradiotherapy (intermittent cisplatin and infusional 5-FU) followed by gemcitabine vs. gemcitabine alone in patients with locally advanced non metastatic pancreatic cancer: a FFCD-SFRO study. [Abstract] J Clin Oncol 24 (Suppl 18): A-4008, 180s, 2006. 
   
   
6. Loehrer PJ Sr, Feng Y, Cardenes H, et al.: Gemcitabine alone versus gemcitabine plus radiotherapy in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer: an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group trial. J Clin Oncol 29 (31): 4105-12, 2011.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
7. Moertel CG, Frytak S, Hahn RG, et al.: Therapy of locally unresectable pancreatic carcinoma: a randomized comparison of high dose (6000 rads) radiation alone, moderate dose radiation (4000 rads + 5-fluorouracil), and high dose radiation + 5-fluorouracil: The Gastrointestinal Tumor Study Group. Cancer 48 (8): 1705-10, 1981.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
8. Chauffert B, Mornex F, Bonnetain F, et al.: Phase III trial comparing intensive induction chemoradiotherapy (60 Gy, infusional 5-FU and intermittent cisplatin) followed by maintenance gemcitabine with gemcitabine alone for locally advanced unresectable pancreatic cancer. Definitive results of the 2000-01 FFCD/SFRO study. Ann Oncol 19 (9): 1592-9, 2008.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
9. Huguet F, André T, Hammel P, et al.: Impact of chemoradiotherapy after disease control with chemotherapy in locally advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma in GERCOR phase II and III studies. J Clin Oncol 25 (3): 326-31, 2007.  [PUBMED Abstract]
   
   
10. van den Bosch RP, van der Schelling GP, Klinkenbijl JH, et al.: Guidelines for the application of surgery and endoprostheses in the palliation of obstructive jaundice in advanced cancer of the pancreas. Ann Surg 219 (1): 18-24, 1994.  [PUBMED Abstract]
    
    
11. Baron TH: Expandable metal stents for the treatment of cancerous obstruction of the gastrointestinal tract. N Engl J Med 344 (22): 1681-7, 2001.  [PUBMED Abstract]
    
    
12. Tepper JE, Noyes D, Krall JM, et al.: Intraoperative radiation therapy of pancreatic carcinoma: a report of RTOG-8505. Radiation Therapy Oncology Group. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 21 (5): 1145-9, 1991.  [PUBMED Abstract]
    
    
13. Reni M, Panucci MG, Ferreri AJ, et al.: Effect on local control and survival of electron beam intraoperative irradiation for resectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma. Int J Radiat Oncol Biol Phys 50 (3): 651-8, 2001.  [PUBMED Abstract]