• Françoise Mornex, Nicolas Girard, Jean-Yves Scoazec, Nadine Bossard, Marc Ychou, Denis Smith, Jean-François Seitz, Pierre-Jean Valette, Pascal Roy, Philippe Rouanet, Michel Ducreux, and Christian Partensky.
• Département de Radiothérapie-Oncologie, Centre Hospitalier Lyon-Sud, Hospices Civils de Lyon, Lyon France. francoise.mornex@chu-lyon.fr
• Int. J. Radiat. Oncol. Biol. Phys. 2006 Aug 1; 65 (5): 1471-8.

PurposeMore than 80% of patients who undergo a potentially curative resection for pancreatic cancer develop local or distant recurrence. Neoadjuvant chemoradiotherapy might offer potential benefits regarding local and systemic control and survival. This multi-institutional Phase II trial explored the feasibility of preoperative chemoradiation in this situation.Methods And MaterialsTreatment consisted of concurrent radiotherapy (50 Gy within 5 weeks), and chemotherapy with 5-fluorouracil (300 mg/m(2)/day, 5 days/week, 5 consecutive weeks) and cisplatin (20 mg/m(2)/day, Days 1-5 and 29-33), followed by surgical resection of the pancreatic tumor in patients without progression.ResultsA total of 41 patients were enrolled. Of these, 38 (93%) received > or =47 Gy; 30 patients (73%) received > or =75% of the prescribed doses of chemotherapy. Surgical resection was performed in 26 patients (63%). Because of local or metastatic progression, 5 patients (12%) did not undergo surgery and 10 underwent surgery without resection of the pancreatic tumor. Operative mortality was 2.8%. Among 40 evaluable patients, 27 were successfully treated (67.5%; 95% CI, 50.9-81.4%).ConclusionsPancreatic cancer is chemo-radiosensitive. The proposed pre-operative scheme is feasible, does not prevent successful surgery, and must be tested on a Phase III setting. Yet, the large proportion of tumor progression during and after chemoradiation justifies the use of more efficient drugs such as Gemcitabine, and optimized radiotherapy including new techniques such as intensity-modulated radiation therapy.

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