Endoscopic biliary drainage for patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer with obstructive jaundice who are to undergo gemcitabine chemotherapy

Table 1 Patients characteristics

	GEM groupn = 30	Control groupn = 15	P
Age (yr)	61 ± 10	67 ± 8	0.06
Male/Female	21/9	7/8	0.13
Stage (IVa/IVb)	22/8	7/8	0.08
PS/CMS	115/15	11/4	0.32

GEM: gemcitabine; PS: plastic stent; CMS: covered expandable metallic stent.

¹The PS was exchanged to CMS after occulusion in 4 patients.

Table 2 Prognostic factors of survival by univariate analysis

	OR	95% CI	P
Age	1.03	1.00-1.06	0.08
Gender (Female)	1.56	0.81-2.99	0.18
Stage (IVb)	2.36	1.15-4.84	0.02
Liver metastasis (+)	2.55	1.24-5.22	0.01
Gemcitabine (-)	2.72	1.35-5.48	0.01

Table 3 Risk factors of stent occulusion by univariate analysis

	OR	95% CI	P
Age	1.00	0.95-1.05	1.00
Gender (Male)	2.01	0.72-5.60	0.18
Stage (IVb)	1.30	0.57-3.31	0.59
Liver metastasis (+)	1.46	0.57-3.74	0.43
Stent (PS)	4.76	1.48-15.4	0.01
Gemcitabine (-)	1.30	0.51-3.33	0.59

Table 4 Adverse effects of GEM chemotherapy n (%)

	Grade
	1	2	3
Bone marrow 24 (89)
(n = 27)
Leukocytes 17 (71)	5 (21)	10 (42)	2 (8)
Hemoglobin 17 (71)	10 (42)	7 (29)
Platelets 6 (25)	3 (13)	1 (4)	2 (8)
Gastrointestinal 6 (20)
(n = 30)
Anorexia 3 (9)		1 (3)	2 (6)
Nausea 5 (15)	2 (6)	2 (6)	1 (3)

Administration of gemcitabine (GEM) was abandoned due to adverse effects in 4 patients.