Abstract

CONTEXT
Patients with periampullary adenocarcinomas undergo the same resectional surgery as that of patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma. Although adjuvant chemotherapy has been shown to have a survival benefit for pancreatic cancer, there have been no randomized trials for periampullary adenocarcinomas.
OBJECTIVE
To determine whether adjuvant chemotherapy (fluorouracil or gemcitabine) provides improved overall survival following resection.
DESIGN, SETTING, AND PATIENTS
The European Study Group for Pancreatic Cancer (ESPAC)-3 periampullary trial, an open-label, phase 3, randomized controlled trial (July 2000-May 2008) in 100 centers in Europe, Australia, Japan, and Canada. Of the 428 patients included in the primary analysis, 297 had ampullary, 96 had bile duct, and 35 had other cancers.
INTERVENTIONS
One hundred forty-four patients were assigned to the observation group, 143 patients to receive 20 mg/m2 of folinic acid via intravenous bolus injection followed by 425 mg/m2 of fluorouracil via intravenous bolus injection administered 1 to 5 days every 28 days, and 141 patients to receive 1000 mg/m2 of intravenous infusion of gemcitabine once a week for 3 of every 4 weeks for 6 months.
MAIN OUTCOME MEASURES
The primary outcome measure was overall survival with chemotherapy vs no chemotherapy; secondary measures were chemotherapy type, toxic effects, progression-free survival, and quality of life.
RESULTS
Eighty-eight patients (61%) in the observation group, 83 (58%) in the fluorouracil plus folinic acid group, and 73 (52%) in the gemcitabine group died. In the observation group, the median survival was 35.2 months (95%% CI, 27.2-43.0 months) and was 43.1 (95%, CI, 34.0-56.0) in the 2 chemotherapy groups (hazard ratio, 0.86; (95% CI, 0.66-1.11; χ2 = 1.33; P = .25). After adjusting for independent prognostic variables of age, bile duct cancer, poor tumor differentiation, and positive lymph nodes and after conducting multiple regression analysis, the hazard ratio for chemotherapy compared with observation was 0.75 (95% CI, 0.57-0.98; Wald χ2 = 4.53, P = .03).
CONCLUSIONS
Among patients with resected periampullary adenocarcinoma, adjuvant chemotherapy, compared with observation, was not associated with a significant survival benefit in the primary analysis; however, multivariable analysis adjusting for prognostic variables demonstrated a statistically significant survival benefit associated with adjuvant chemotherapy.
TRIAL REGISTRATION
clinicaltrials.gov Identifier: NCT00058201.

Links

Publisher Full Text

Authors

Neoptolemos JP, Moore MJ, Cox TF, Valle JW, Palmer DH, McDonald AC, Carter R, Tebbutt NC, Dervenis C, Smith D, Glimelius B, Charnley RM, Lacaine F, Scarfe AG, Middleton MR, Anthoney A, Ghaneh P, Halloran CM, Lerch MM, Oláh A, Rawcliffe CL, Verbeke CS, Campbell F, Büchler MW, European Study Group for Pancreatic Cancer

Institution

Institute of Translational Medicine, Liverpool Cancer Trials Unit, Liverpool Cancer Research United Kingdom Centre, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, England, United Kingdom. j.p.neoptolemos@liverpool.ac.uk

Source

JAMA : the journal of the American Medical Association 308:2 2012 Jul 11 pg 147-56

MeSH

Adenocarcinoma
Aged
Ampulla of Vater
Antineoplastic Combined Chemotherapy Protocols
Chemotherapy, Adjuvant
Common Bile Duct Neoplasms
Deoxycytidine
Female
Fluorouracil
Humans
Leucovorin
Male
Middle Aged
Prognosis
Survival Analysis
Watchful Waiting

Pub Type(s)

Clinical Trial, Phase III
Journal Article
Multicenter Study
Randomized Controlled Trial
Research Support, Non-U.S. Gov't

Language

eng

PubMed ID

22782416