Muhammad Wasif Saif, Joshua Richter
Although many cancers have seen a decline in rates due to screening techniques, the lack of viable screening for pancreatic cancer yields a large number of patients presenting with locally advanced and metastatic disease. Interesting new data regarding the management of locally advanced pancreatic cancer was presented at the 2010 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, January 22-24, Orlando, FL, USA. Crane et al. presented phase II data exploring induction chemotherapy followed by chemoradiotherapy with multiple agents including cetuximab, gemcitabine, oxaliplatin and capecitabine (Abstract #132). Phase II data was also presented examining the role of S-1, an oral fluoropyrimidine, in the locally advanced setting (Abstract #196). In the wake of several studies exploring the role of platinum compounds in combination with gemcitabine; Raftery et al. explored the combination of oxaliplatin and gemcitabine with concomitant radiotherapy (Abstract #220). As surgical resection still represents the only clear pathway towards cure, data was presented exploring the factors associated with patients who are converted from unresectable to resectable in the locally advanced setting (Abstract #218). The authors summarize and discuss the data from the meeting.
