Gemcitabine and cisplatin in the treatment of patients with locally advanced and metastatic pancreatic carcinoma

Abstract

This study was conducted to determine the efficacy and toxicity of gemcitabine in combination with cisplatin in patients with advanced pancreatic carcinoma. The drug schedule included gemcitabine 800 mg/m2 administered on day 1 and 8 of each cycle and cisplatin 75 mg/m2 on day 1 or 2 every 3 weeks. Twenty-eight patients were registered on this study. The objective response rate was 14%. One of these had complete response (3%) and 3 patients had partial response (11%). Eight patients had stable disease (29%) and the clinical benefit was obtained at 12 patients (43%). The median time to progression in the study was 5±0.5 months (95% Cl, 4.0-6.0), with 36% of patients progression free at 6 months. The median overall survival was 7±0.9 months (95% Cl, 5.3-8.7) with 61% and 21% of patients alive at 6 and 12 months, respectively. Gemcitabine and cisplatin combination is moderately effective and toxicity of this schedule is tolerable in these advanced pancreatic carcinoma patients.