Patterns of treatment outcomes in older patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Abstract

481 Background: Although pancreatic cancers are common in older age-groups, treatment approaches and outcomes are understudied in this population. We undertook this study to compare treatment outcomes for older patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer. Methods: Data from 167 patients aged 70 years or over with metastatic pancreatic cancer from January 2010 to July 2015, were analyzed. The clinic-pathologic variables and treatment outcome retrospectively reviewed. Results: One hundred and sixty three patients were identified. Among them, only 22.1% (n=36) patients receive palliative chemotherapy. The median age was 74.0 years old (range: 70-84) in the groups of chemotherapy as compared with 78.6 years old (range: 70-94.6) in the groups of supportive care. The median survival was 9.2 months (range: 1.0-24.9) in the chemotherapy group as compared with 2.3 month (range: 0.1-31.8) in the supportive care group. Among chemotherapy group, 50% (n=18) patients receive gemcitabine-based double therapy. Nine patients (30%) receive 2nd line chemotherapy. In group of supportive care, 55.8% (n=74) were survival less than 3 months. However, the median survival except for early deaths (less than 3 months) was 6.5 months. Conclusions: The current results showed that older patient with metastatic pancreatic cancer received chemotherapy less likely. However, the survival benefit from the chemotherapy was comparable outcome with historical data. Further study of identifying older patients who would benefit from cytotoxic chemotherapy was needed.