The impact of adjuvant therapy on outcome in UICC stage I pancreatic cancer.

Adjuvant chemotherapy has become standard of care for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) as it improves patient outcome. However, its clinical meaning in early-stage, UICC I tumors remains uncertain. We examined the effect of adjuvant therapy on disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) of UICC stage I PDAC patients treated at an academic tertiary care center between 2000 and 2016. Among 124 patients (69 male, 55 female; median age 68 years, range 41-84 years) with UICC stage I disease, adjuvant therapy improved both DFS (19.8 vs 12.8 months, HR 0.59, 95% CI: 0.37-0.94, P = .03) and OS (40.9 vs 20.3 months, HR 0.54, 95% CI: 0.35-0.84, P = .005). Multivariate analyses and propensity score matching confirmed the prognostic impact of adjuvant therapy independent of localization, differentiation and R-status. Thus, every patient with UICC I PDAC should receive adjuvant chemotherapy as it may improve outcome significantly. Our findings support the concept of PDAC as systemic disease from early stages on.