How to treat pancreatic adenocarcinoma in elderly: How far can we go in 2017?

Abstract

Pancreatic adenocarcinoma is one of the most fatal cancers that frequently affects older patients. Limited data suggest that older patients are as likely to benefit from surgery, radiation, and chemotherapy as younger patients. The only potentially curative approach for pancreatic cancer is surgery but this is only performed in less than 20% of patients considered resectable. With improvements in surgical techniques, older patients without major comorbidities show a course of disease after resection similar to that of younger patients. The use of adjuvant chemotherapy in an attempt to prolong survival is therefore reasonable for this population of patients. Historically, patients with locally-advanced disease will be offered gemcitabine as standard chemotherapy, with radiotherapy considered at a later time. In the majority, metastatic patients will preferably be offered gemcitabine chemotherapy, which can be used at a lower dose in frail or very old patients. In some cases in patients in a very good health condition, two recent intensive chemotherapies can be proposed with modified doses and a close follow-up: the 5-fluoroucil, leucovorin, irinotecan, oxaliplatin (FOLFIRINOX) regimen and the combination of gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel. For older patients with terminal disease and palliative needs, which is the majority of cases, better use of pain control and palliative measures can be beneficial. Each of these issues will be examined in detail in this review.