[Concurrent chemoradiotherapy using full-dose gemcitabine for patients with unresectable pancreatic cancer]

To examine the feasibility of radiotherapy with a full dose of gemcitabine (1000 mg/m2 once a week) for unresectable pancreatic carcinoma, we treated 15 patients with 50 Gy/25 fractions/5 weeks concurrent chemoradiotherapy using a limited irradiation field. Eleven patients completed treatment. No lethal side effects were seen during and after these therapies. Two patients quit therapy because of tumor progression; one patient quit radiotherapy owing to general fatigue and nausea; and the other patient stopped gemcitabine administration owing to a grade 4 hematological adverse event. As only two patients stopped this protocol as a result of untoward effects of treatment, limited-field radiotherapy enabled us to treat pancreatic cancer with full-dose gemcitabine.