Roeder F. Neoadjuvant radiotherapeutic strategies in pancreatic cancer. World J Gastrointest Oncol 2016; 8(2): 186-197 [PMID: 26909133 DOI: 10.4251/wjgo.v8.i2.186]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Dr. Falk Roeder, PhD, Department of Radiation Oncology, University Hospital of Munich (LMU), Marchioninistr 15, 81377 Munich, Germany. falk.roeder@med.uni-muenchen.de
Research Domain of This Article
Radiology, Nuclear Medicine & Medical Imaging
Article-Type of This Article
Review
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Oncol. Feb 15, 2016; 8(2): 186-197 Published online Feb 15, 2016. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v8.i2.186
Neoadjuvant radiotherapeutic strategies in pancreatic cancer
Falk Roeder
Falk Roeder, Department of Radiation Oncology, University Hospital of Munich (LMU), 81377 Munich, Germany
Falk Roeder, Clinical Cooperation Unit Molecular Radiation Oncology, German Cancer Research Center (DKFZ), 69120 Heidelberg, Germany
Author contributions: Roeder F wrote the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The author declares no conflict of interest for this article.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Correspondence to: Dr. Falk Roeder, PhD, Department of Radiation Oncology, University Hospital of Munich (LMU), Marchioninistr 15, 81377 Munich, Germany. falk.roeder@med.uni-muenchen.de
Telephone: +49-89-440073729 Fax: +49-89-440076770
Received: July 3, 2015 Peer-review started: July 9, 2015 First decision: September 18, 2015 Revised: October 12, 2015 Accepted: December 9, 2015 Article in press: December 11, 2015 Published online: February 15, 2016 Processing time: 214 Days and 21.7 Hours
Core Tip
Core tip: This review summarizes the current status of neoadjuvant radiation approaches for pancreatic cancer. Neoadjuvant chemoradiation for locally-advanced cases results in secondary resectability in a substantial proportion of patients with consecutively improved overall prognosis. In resectable pancreatic cancer, outstanding results in terms of response, local control and overall survival have been observed in several phase I/II trials. Further investigation of neoadjuvant chemoradiation strategies should be performed preferentially in randomized trials and included evaluation of optimal sequencing with chemotherapy and patient selection based on molecular markers. Modern radiation techniques widen the therapeutic window and contribute to the reduction of toxicity.