15.9 Conclusion
Improving the treatment of pancreatic cancer is a challenge. Whenever possible, patients should be enrolled in investigational studies that evaluate novel therapies. Outside of a clinical trial, postoperative chemoradiation is the current standard adjuvant treatment after pancreaticoduodenectomy in the United States, but results from all randomized trials indicate significant rates of local tumor recurrence. For locally advanced disease, improving local tumor control rates is an important goal as well. In both cases, patients probably benefit from gemcitabine-based chemotherapy as well as chemoradiation. A strategy that incorporates both probably takes advantage of the best-available established therapies. The incorporation of molecularly targeted therapy with well-tolerated chemoradiation and chemotherapy regimens is a promising approach that addresses the limitations of conventional therapy without introducing unacceptable toxicity. Fortunately, investigators have placed more emphasis on pancreatic cancer in recent years than in the past, and many more clinical trials evaluating novel radiosensitizers are available to patients. Enrollment of patients in these studies is critical to the improvement of outcome in this disease.
Keywords
- Pancreatic Cancer
- Clin Oncol
- Radiat Oncol Biol Phys
- Advanced Pancreatic Cancer
- Local Tumor Control
These keywords were added by machine and not by the authors. This process is experimental and the keywords may be updated as the learning algorithm improves.
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Crane, C.H., Varadhachary, G., Pisters, P.W.T., Evans, D.B., Wolff, R.A. (2006). Novel Chemoradiation in Localized Pancreatic Cancer: Clinical Studies. In: Brown, J.M., Mehta, M.P., Nieder, C. (eds) Multimodal Concepts for Integration of Cytotoxic Drugs. Medical Radiology. Springer, Berlin, Heidelberg. https://doi.org/10.1007/3-540-35662-2_15
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