Cancer Res Treat.  2015 Apr;47(2):266-273. 10.4143/crt.2013.158.

Gemcitabine Combined with Capecitabine Compared to Gemcitabine with or without Erlotinib as First-Line Chemotherapy in Patients with Advanced Pancreatic Cancer

Affiliations
  • 1Department of Medical Oncology, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea. chojy@yuhs.ac
  • 2Department of Gastroenterology, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.
  • 3Department of Surgery, Gangnam Severance Hospital, Yonsei University College of Medicine, Seoul, Korea.

Abstract

PURPOSE
The purpose of this study is to retrospectively compare the efficacy and tolerability between three regimens for first-line chemotherapy-gemcitabine plus capecitabine (GEM-X), gemcitabine plus erlotinib (GEM-T), and gemcitabine monotherapy (GEM)-in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer.
MATERIALS AND METHODS
There was a total of 127 patients who underwent chemotherapy for pancreatic cancer between January 2007 and November 2011 at our institution. Patients were treated with either GEM (gemcitabine 1,000 mg/m2 on days 1, 8, and 15 every 4 weeks), GEM-T (gemcitabine 1,000 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8 every 3 weeks and erlotinib 100 mg daily), or GEM-X (gemcitabine 1,000 mg/m2 on days 1 and 8 every 3 weeks and capecitabine 850 mg/m2 twice daily for 2 weeks followed by 1 week's rest) as the first-line treatment. Progression-free survival (PFS), overall survival (OS), objective response rate (ORR), and toxicity were evaluated.
RESULTS
The patient population was divided into groups depending on their first-line treatment: GEM (n=47), GEM-T (n=44), and GEM-X (n=36). GEM-X significantly improved ORR (21.2% vs. 12.7% and 15.9%), PFS (8.9 vs. 5.2 and 3.9 months; p < 0.001), and OS (12.1 vs. 10.4 and 9.9 months; p = 0.03) compared to GEM and GEM-T, respectively. There were higher incidences of some non-hematologic adverse events with GEM-X and GEM-T compared to GEM, but most were grade 1 or 2.
CONCLUSION
GEM-X presented better clinical efficacy and acceptable tolerability than GEM-T and GEM in advanced pancreatic cancers. It is worthy to further investigate which agent has a clinical advantage as a combination drug with gemcitabine in pancreatic cancer and to explore the predictive markers leading to personalize anti-cancer treatment.

Keyword

Pancreatic neoplasms; Drug therapy; Gemcitabine; Capecitabine; Erlotinib

MeSH Terms

Disease-Free Survival
Drug Therapy*
Humans
Incidence
Pancreatic Neoplasms*
Retrospective Studies

Figure

  • Fig. 1. Kaplan-Meier curves for PFS (A) and OS (B) of the GEM (red line), GEM-T (green line), and GEM-X arms (blue line). PFS, progression-free survival; OS, overall survival; GEM, gemcitabine; GEM-T, gemcitabine plus erlotinib; GEM-X, gemcitabine plus capecitabine; HR, hazard ratio; CI, confidence interval.


Reference

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