Dataset Information

Borderline Resectable Pancreatic Cancer: Challenges for Clinical Management.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains a significant worldwide health problem with a poor prognosis. A borderline resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (BR-PDAC) is a tumor with limited vascular involvement that is technically resectable but with a high risk of positive margins (R1 resection).

Objective

To identify the current challenges that exist in the management of BR-PDAC.

Methods

A review of the literature was conducted to identify articles discussing the definitions and management of BR-PDAC.

Key findings

Several anatomic definitions of BR-PDAC exist, and there is significant heterogeneity in their utilization across published trials. To improve the odds of a margin negative (R0) resection, a neoadjuvant treatment approach involving chemotherapy with or without radiation is currently preferred. While supporting the efficacy of a neoadjuvant approach in BR-PDAC, the largest published randomized trials have utilized older gemcitabine-based regimens. Recently published Phase II evidence and meta-analyses have supported the use of modern multi-agent regimens such as FOLFIRINOX. The utility of adding radiation to a chemotherapy backbone remains in question. Due to remnant fibrosis and edema following neoadjuvant therapy, accurately selecting patients for resection based on a restaging CT scan is challenging. Furthermore, the role of adjuvant therapy in BR-PDAC patients receiving neoadjuvant therapy needs to be defined.

Conclusion

Though progress has been made, the optimal management of BR-PDAC is uncertain. Phase III trials utilizing modern chemotherapeutic regimens are needed to establish a standard of care.

SUBMITTER: Fawaz A

PROVIDER: S-EPMC9805723 | biostudies-literature | 2022

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature

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Publications

Borderline Resectable Pancreatic Cancer: Challenges for Clinical Management.

Fawaz Ali A Abdel-Rahman Omar O

Cancer management and research 20221228

<h4>Background</h4>Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remains a significant worldwide health problem with a poor prognosis. A borderline resectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (BR-PDAC) is a tumor with limited vascular involvement that is technically resectable but with a high risk of positive margins (R1 resection).<h4>Objective</h4>To identify the current challenges that exist in the management of BR-PDAC.<h4>Methods</h4>A review of the literature was conducted to identify articles d ...[more]

PMID: 36597515

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Project description:Approximately 20% of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) patients have (borderline) resectable pancreatic cancer [(B)RPC] at diagnosis. Upfront resection with adjuvant chemotherapy has long been the standard of care for these patients. However, although surgical quality has improved, still about 50% of patients never receive adjuvant treatment. Therefore, recent developments have focused on a neoadjuvant approach. Directly comparing results from neoadjuvant and adjuvant regimens is challenging due to differences in patient populations that influence outcomes. Neoadjuvant trials include all patients who have (B)RPC on imaging, while adjuvant-only trials include patients who underwent a complete resection and recovered to a good performance status without any evidence of residual disease. Guidelines recommend neoadjuvant treatment for BRPC patients mainly to improve negative resection margin (R0) rates. For resectable PDAC, upfront resection is still considered the standard of care. However, theoretical advantages of neoadjuvant treatment, including the increased R0 resection rate, early delivery of systemic therapy to all patients, directly addressing occult metastatic disease, and improved patient selection for resection, may also apply to these patients. A systematic review by intention-to-treat showed a superior median overall survival (OS) for any neoadjuvant approach (19 months) compared to upfront surgery (15 months) in (B)RPC patients. A neoadjuvant approach was recently supported by three randomized controlled trials (RCTs). For resectable PDAC, neoadjuvant treatment was superior in a Japanese RCT of neoadjuvant gemcitabine with S-1 vs. upfront surgery, with adjuvant S-1 in both arms (median OS: 37 vs. 27 months, p = 0.015). A Korean trial of neoadjuvant gemcitabine-based chemoradiotherapy vs. upfront resection in BRPC patients was terminated early due to superiority of the neoadjuvant group (median OS: 21 vs. 12 months, p = 0.028; R0 resection: 52 vs. 26%, p = 0.004). The PREOPANC-1 trial for (B)RPC patients also showed favorable outcome for neoadjuvant gemcitabine-based chemoradiotherapy vs. upfront surgery (median OS: 17 vs. 14 months, p = 0.07; R0 resection: 63 vs. 31%, p < 0.001). FOLFIRINOX is likely a better neoadjuvant regimen, because of superiority compared to gemcitabine in both the metastatic and adjuvant setting. Currently, five RCTs evaluating neoadjuvant modified or fulldose FOLFIRINOX are accruing patients.

Project description:Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is currently ranked fourth place of cancer related mortality. Only a minority of 10-20% of patients with PDAC have a primarily resectable disease, while 50-60% of the patients are diagnosed with irresectable disease. A certain group of patients is defined as "borderline resectable", which is mainly relied to contact of the tumor to major abdominal vessels. For preoperative evaluation of resectability CT and MRI is commonly used. Although CT-scanning, which is the standard preoperative imaging modality, has striking limitations concerning evaluation of lymph node status as well as vessel involvement and approximately 20% of the patients are staged incorrectly. A central part of modern therapy of locally advanced or not primarily resectable PDAC is neoadjuvant therapy. Especially neoadjuvant chemotherapy according to the FOLFIRINOX protocol resulted in high resection rates of initially not resectable patients. Furthermore, treatment with FOLFIRINOX was shown to be an independent predictor of improved prognosis and resection after neoadjuvant treatment with FOLFIRINOX was associated with improved survival. Neoadjuvant treatment was able to increases the rates of R0 resection, which depicts an independent prognostic factor and FOLFIRINOX outmatched other treatment regimes (e.g., gemcitabine-based radio-chemotherapy) concerning achievement of a R0 resection. While most evidence of neoadjuvant treatment of PDAC is conferred by retrospective analysis, there is growing data from randomized controlled trials, confirming the beneficial effects of neoadjuvant therapy on the prognosis of PDAC. Thus, patients with borderline resectable and locally advanced PDAC should be evaluated for neoadjuvant treatment. If there is no progression of the disease during neoadjuvant treatment exploration with the goal of R0 resection should be performed. If possible, patients should be included in well-designed randomized controlled trials at specialized pancreatic centers.

Dataset Information

Borderline Resectable Pancreatic Cancer: Challenges for Clinical Management.

Background

Objective

Methods

Key findings

Conclusion

Publications

Borderline Resectable Pancreatic Cancer: Challenges for Clinical Management.

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