Usefulness of gemcitabine in the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer in terms of its clinical benefits

: Since pancreatic cancers are frequently discovered in an advanced stage, the expectations for chemotherapy are high. However, the response rate to chemotherapy of advanced cancer remains low. In Western countries, gemcitabine (GEM), a newly approved drug in Japan, was reported to be useful in improving symptoms and prolonging survival. In the present study, we compared 13 patients with unresectable advanced pancreatic cancer who were treated with GEM alone and 13 patients with pancreatic cancer treated with 5-fluorouracil/cisplatin (FP) as historical controls, with reference to therapeutic results, adverse reactions, and clinical benefit response. Although the response rate to GEM was low, at 7.7% (1/13), prolonged NC was seen in 76.9% (10/13) of cases, suggesting a contribution to prolonged survival (p = 0.0025). A clinical benefit response was seen in 38.5% (5/13) of the GEM group, as compared with the lower rate of 7.7% (1/13) in the FP group (p = 0.063). Since GEM is convenient to-administer, and does not diminish a patient's QOL, it is considered to be useful as a drug of first choice in the treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer in terms of clinical benefits.