[Clinical study on the effect of chemotherapy in the treatment of pancreatic cancer].

The effect of chemotherapy in the treatment of pancreatic cancer was evaluated on the basis of prognosis in 299 patients treated at the Kobe University Hospital and the Interhospital Cooperative Study Group for Multidisciplinary Approaches to Treatment of Pancreatic and Biliary Cancer. One hundred forty-three patients with pancreatic cancer were treated with a number of chemotherapeutic agents, while ninety-eight patients did not receive any chemotherapy. There were no significant differences in clinical characteristics between the two groups. The treated patients had a median survival time of 6 months and a one-year cumulative survival rate of 25.3%. These were significantly different compared with figures of 3 months and 9.5% for non-treated control patients. A chemotherapy regimen consisting of fluoropyrimidines was also confirmed to be effective. These results suggest that the chemotherapeutic approach appears quite promising and is effective for the treatment of pancreatic cancer.