Abstract
Pancreatic cancer has a dismal prognosis because most lesions are unresectable where as adjuvant and palliative chemotherapy exhibits poor results.
Six patients with locally unresectable pancreatic cancer were treated with mitomycin-C (MMC) 8mg/m2 on day 1 and 5-FU 375mg/m2 and LV 20mg/m2 on days 1 to 5. Treatment cycles were repeated every four weeks if the patient's general condition permitted. All patients had measurable, histologically proven adenocarcinoma and had not undergone prior chemotherapy.
Three patients underwent hepaticojejunostomy whilst choledochal stents were endoscopically inserted in two patients. No significant side effects of grade 3 or 4 were observed. Five of six patients who received an average of 5 treatment cycles died of their disease with a medial survival of 8.9 months. The remaining patient received 12 treatment cycles and 8 additional treatments without mitomycin-C and exhibited a complete remission for 36 months.
Our data suggest that MMC plus 5-FU and leucovorin is a tolerable regimen and has promising effects. Further prospective studies are needed.
