Retrospective Study
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2020. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Cases. Jul 6, 2020; 8(13): 2778-2786
Published online Jul 6, 2020. doi: 10.12998/wjcc.v8.i13.2778
Adjuvant nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine vs gemcitabine alone for resected pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma: A single center experience in China
Zhu-Zeng Yin, Zhi-Ming Zhao, Wen-Bo Tang, Nan Jiang, Ke-Di Zhang, Yu-Yao Song, Yang Wang, Cheng-Gang Li, Yuan-Xing Gao, Rong Liu
Zhu-Zeng Yin, Zhi-Ming Zhao, Wen-Bo Tang, Nan Jiang, Ke-Di Zhang, Yu-Yao Song, Yang Wang, Cheng-Gang Li, Yuan-Xing Gao, Rong Liu, The Second Department of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, The First Medical Center, Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, Beijing 100853, China
Author contributions: Yin ZZ and Zhao ZZ contribute equally to this work; Yin ZZ and Zhao ZZ analyzed and interpreted the data and wrote the article; Tang WB, Jiang N, Zhang KD, Song YY, Wang Y, Li CG and Gao YX drafted the article and collected the data; Liu R designed the study.
Supported by the China Postdoctoral Science Foundation, No. 2015M582853.
Institutional review board statement: The study was approved by the Institutional Review Board of the Chinese People's Liberation Army General Hospital (S2016-098-02).
Informed consent statement: Patients were not required to give informed consent to the study because the analysis used anonymous clinical data that were obtained after each patient agreed to treatment by written consent. For full disclosure, the details of the study are published on the home page of Fukushima Medical University.
Conflict-of-interest statement: The authors declare that there is no conflict of interest related to this study.
Data sharing statement: Due to the sensitive nature of the questions asked in this study, survey respondents were assured raw data would remain confidential and would not be shared.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (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/
Corresponding author: Rong Liu, MD, PhD, Professor, The Second Department of Hepatopancreatobiliary Surgery, The First Medical Center, Chinese People’s Liberation Army General Hospital, No. 28, Fuxing Road, Beijing 100853, China. liurong301@126.com
Received: March 15, 2020
Peer-review started: March 15, 2020
First decision: April 22, 2020
Revised: May 2, 2020
Accepted: June 7, 2020
Article in press: June 7, 2020
Published online: July 6, 2020
Processing time: 111 Days and 22.2 Hours
ARTICLE HIGHLIGHTS
Research background

Nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine (AG) has resulted in better tumor response and survival rates for metastatic or advanced pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) compared with gemcitabine (GEM) alone. However, its role in adjuvant therapy for resected PDAC remains unclear.

Research motivation

This study aimed to examine the effects of AG and GEM alone as adjuvant therapy for resected PDAC.

Research objectives

This study examined the safety and efficacy of AG adjuvant therapy for resected PDAC.

Research methods

We retrospectively reviewed our PDAC database for patients with primary resectable PDAC who were treated with AG or GEM alone as postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy between January 2013 and December 2016.

Research results

The median follow-up duration was 22 mo in the GEM group and 27 mo in the AG group. Compared with GEM, median disease-free survival (12.2 mo vs 15.8 mo, P = 0.039) and overall survival (20.6 mo vs 28.3 mo, P = 0.028) were significantly improved in the AG group. The 2-year overall survival rates were 63.3% and 43.3% in the AG and GEM groups, respectively. However, the incidence of sensory neuropathy was significantly higher in the AG than in the GEM group (53.3% vs 23.3%, P < 0.001).

Research conclusions

This study suggested that AG significantly improved disease-free survival and overall survival of patients with resected PDAC. AG may be a potential option for postoperative adjuvant chemotherapy of resectable PDAC.

Research perspectives

The present study had several limitations due to its retrospective study design. It was also a single-center, nonrandomized controlled study with potential selection bias. However, our results initially indicated the efficacy and safety of AG for resectable PDAC. The ongoing Phase III APACT study is investigating survival for adjuvant GEM compared with AG for resected PDAC. We look forward to seeing the results of this study that are expected by 2022.