Intensive weekly chemotherapy is not effective in advanced pancreatic cancer patients: a report from the Italian Group for the Study of Digestive Tract Cancer (GISCAD)

Twenty-two patients, with locally advanced unresectable and/or metastatic pancreatic carcinoma, received weekly administration of cisplatin 40 mg m(−2), 5-fluorouracil 500 mg m(−2), epidoxorubicin 35 mg m(−2), 6S stereoisomer of leucovorin 250 mg m(−2) and glutathione 1.5 mg m(−2), supported by a daily administration of lenograstim at a dose of 5 μg kg(−1). Nineteen patients were men and three were women. Median age was 63 years (range 47–70). At study entry, pain was present in 15 out of 22 patients (68%) with a mean value of Scott–Huskisson scale of 27.6 ± 23.8, whereas a weight loss >10% was present in 15 patients. After eight weekly treatments, three partial responses were achieved for a response rate of 13% (95% CI 0–26%), five patients had stable disease and 14 progressed on therapy. Pain was present in 9 out of 22 patients (40%) with a mean value of Scott–Huskisson scale of 12.3 ± 18.4. Eight patients (36%) (three partial response and five stable disease) had a positive weight change. Toxicity was mild: WHO grade III or IV toxicity was recorded in terms of anaemia in 7 out of 188 cycles (3.7%), of neutropenia in 9 out of 188 cycles (4.7%) and of thrombocytopenia in 3 out of 188 cycles (1.5%). Median survival of all patients was 6 months. The outcome of this intensive chemotherapy regimen does not support its use in pancreatic cancer. © 1999 Cancer Research Campaign