Second-line therapy for advanced pancreatic cancer: evaluation of prognostic factors and review of current literature

Abstract

Background: FOLFIRINOX is a standard first-line treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer (aPC) and no accepted second-line regimen exists. Material & methods: We enrolled 71 aPC patients progressed to modified FOLFIRINOX (mFOLFIRINOX) treated with second-line chemotherapy. Results: Five partial responses (7.1%) and 19 (27.1%) disease stabilizations were reported. After a median follow-up of 20.1 months, median progression-free survival was 2.5 months (95% CI: 2.1–2.9 months) and median overall survival was 6.2 months (95% CI: 5.3–7.1 months). At multivariate analysis, CA19.9 level ≥59 upper normal limit resulted associated with worse survival (hazard ratio: 2.32; 95% CI: 1.12–4.78; p = 0.023). Conclusion: Salvage chemotherapy could be useful for a subgroup of aPC patients. Prognostic factors might be helpful to identify patients with greater benefit.