Effect of prior cancer on survival outcomes for patients with pancreatic adenocarcinoma: a propensity score analysis

BACKGROUND: With the increase in cancer survivors, more pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas (PDACs) are developing as second primary cancers. Whether a prior cancer has an inferior impact on survival outcomes in patients with PDAC remains unknown, and the validity of criteria used to exclude patients with prior cancers in clinical trials needs to be determined. The aim of this study was to evaluate the prognostic factors and assess the survival impact of a prior cancer in patients with second primary PDAC. METHODS: Patients with PDAC were retrospectively selected from the Surveillance, Epidemiology, and End Results (SEER) database. Overall survival (OS) and cancer-specific mortality rates were compared between patients with and those without prior cancer. RESULTS: The data of 9235 patients with PDAC from 2004 to 2015 were retrieved from the SEER database, consisting of 438 (4.74%) patients with a prior cancer and 8797 (95.26%) patients without a prior cancer, the patients were then pair-matched using propensity score matching (PSM) analysis. The median OS rates were 7 months for both groups of patients with PDAC with and without prior cancer. These two groups of patients had similar survival rates and cancer-specific mortalities before and after the PSM analysis. In the multivariate analysis, a history of prior cancer was not a significant prognostic factor of OS in patients with PDAC. CONCLUSIONS: Patients with PDAC who had a prior cancer had similar OS and cancer-specific mortality rates as those of patients without a prior cancer. The inclusion of patients with a prior cancer in the clinical trials of PDAC should be considered. ELECTRONIC SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIAL: The online version of this article (10.1186/s12885-019-5744-8) contains supplementary material, which is available to authorized users.