Intra-arterial chemotherapy for advanced pancreatic cancer

Abstract

Objective. To study effectiveness of intra-arterial chemotherapy in patients with locally advanced and metastatic pancreatic cancer.Material and methods. There were 329 patients who underwent regional chemotherapy in 2000 – 2015 (infusion through celiac trunk – 167, chemoembolization of gastroduodenal artery – 52, combination of these methods – 72, combined chemo-radiotherapy – 38). Locally advanced unresectable pancreatic cancer with arterial invasion (T4 grade) was observed in 198 (60.2%) patients, liver metastases (stage IV) – in 131 (39.8%) patients. Chemoembolization or chemoradiation therapy was performed for patients without distant metastases.Results. The best results for unresectable pancreatic cancer were obtained in 160 patients after chemoembolization combined with infusion. Partial response was obtained in 24.1% of cases compared with 8.9% and 13.4% of cases after infusion or chemoembolization alone. Mean life expectancy was 15.5 months compared with 14.6 and 10.6 months, respectively. Median of life expectancy was 15.6 months compared with 11.7 and 10.8 months, respectively. At the same time, progression of disease was observed in the majority of 131 patients with metastatic cancer. Partial response was noted only in 2.3% of patients only after chemoinfusion. Survival and median survival after chemoinfusion and combination of chemoembolization with chemoinfusion were similar (10.1 (8.3) and 10.9 (7.5) months). Chemoradiotherapy in 4 patients with initially unresectable pancreatic cancer resulted reduction of tumor dimension by 28% (24–32%). Therefore, radical operations were performed later. One-year survival was achieved in 20 (58.8%) out of 34 patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer. Mean life expectancy was 15.4 months (median 13.8 months).Conclusion. Intra-arterial chemotherapy is effective treatment in patients with pancreatic cancer stage III and IV. Combination of celiac axis infusion with arterial embolization, as well as infusion with radiotherapy resulted the best survival. Certain advantage of chemoinfusion was found for liver metastases. The use of new chemotherapy modes for intra-arterial infusion requires further study.