Vol 9, No 5 (2013)
Review paper
Published online: 2013-12-03
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Beyond FOLFIRINOX? The evolution of the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer

Tomasz Lewandowski, Renata Biernacka, Marek Szmyd
Onkol. Prak. Klin 2013;9(5):191-196.

Abstract

Prognosis for advanced pancreatic cancer still remains very poor. The basic method of treatment is palliative chemotherapy. Chemotherapy with FOLFIRINOX regimen has shown improvement in overall survival about 11 months in patients with good performance status, but is associated with significant toxicity. Treatment with gemcitabine remains the standard of care for many patients. Majority of previous studies showed no significant advantage with the use of gemcitabine in combination with other cytotoxic drugs and molecularly targeted agents over monotherapy. Slight increase in median overall survival has been reported only in combination with erlotinib. The positive results of the MPACT trial using nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine have been published this year. This article presents the evolution of the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer and reviews current research findings. Improving patient outcomes requires further clinical trials including search for predictors to individualize treatment.

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