Abstract:Objective:To investigate the effect of gemcitabine plus gimeracil and oteracil porassium capsules (S-1) in pancreatic cancer patients after curative resection of pancreatic cancer.
Methods:Patients admitted for curative resecton for pancreatic cancer received adjuvant chemotherapy with 10 cycles of gemcitabine plus S-1 every 2 weeks. Each chemotherapy cycle consisted of intravenous gemcitabine, 700 mg/m2, on day 1 and orally administered S-1, 50 mg/m2, for 7 consecutive days, after which there was a 1-week pause of chemotherapy (adjavant chemotherapy group). The treatment results were compared wiht other 20 patients who only underwent radical operation (control group).
Results:The survival rate in adjuvant chemotherapy group(median survival time=33 months)was significantly better than that in control group(median survival time=21 months)(P<0.05). The 2- and 3- year cumulative survival rate in adjuvant chemotherapy group was 67.4% and 39.8%, respectively, which was significantly better than those in the control group (344% and 15.3%) (P<0.05). The WHO toxicities grade of adjuvant chemotherapy group generally were WHO I and II, and no WHO IV toxic event was observed.
Conclusions:Adjuvant gemcitabine plus S-1 chemotherapy can increase the survival rate and appears to be a beneficial treatment for patients with pancreatic cancer after surgical resection.