Efficacy and safety of different chemotherapy regimens in patients with disseminated pancreatic cancer over 65 years old

Aim. To evaluate the effectiveness and tolerability of systemic chemotherapy in elderly patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer (mPC) in real clinical practice.

Materials and methods. The study included patients with mPC over 65 years of age who received first-line chemotherapy at the N. N. Blokhin National Medical Research Center of Oncology for the period from 2004 to 2023. Any previous antitumor chemotherapy for mPC was an exclusion criterion. The primary endpoint was 1-year overall survival (OS), and the secondary endpoints were ORR, median progression-free survival, median OS, chemotherapy tolerability.

Results. The study included 148 patients aged 65 to 86 years with mPC who received first-line chemotherapy. Median progression-free survival among the entire population was 5.2 months. One-year OS among all patients was 32 %. The 1-year OS in mFOLFIRINOX group was 43.4 % and in gemcitabine group – 19.6 %. In a subgroup analysis, median OS with combination treatment was higher than in the gemcitabine monotherapy group (median OS 8.4 months vs. 6.8 months, p = 0.009). Patients with ECOG 2–3 also benefited from combination chemotherapy. Median OS was 8.9 months versus 3.9 months in gemcitabine (p = 0.008). The frequency of an objective response with triple chemotherapy was 66.1 %. In 30.8 % of cases, grade 3–4 neutropenia developed with mFOLFIRINOX, but febrile neutropenia developed only in three patients (5.8 %). The incidence of grade 3–4 adverse events was low, and these chemotherapy regimens were well tolerated.

Conclusion. Conducting a triple chemotherapy regimen in elderly patients with mPC is an effective treatment option with an acceptable range of toxicity.