Related Experiment Video
Updated: Jun 20, 2026
An Orthotopic Resectional Mouse Model of Pancreatic Cancer
Published on: September 24, 2020
Downstaging of pancreatic carcinoma after neoadjuvant chemoradiation
Dominik Tinkl1, Gerhard G Grabenbauer, Henriette Golcher
1Department of Radiation Oncology, Friedrich Alexander University of Erlangen-Nuremberg, Erlangen, Germany.
Background And Purpose:
Neoadjuvant chemoradiation could improve survival in patients with pancreatic cancer because of a higher rate of R0 resections, lower rate of nodal metastasis (ypN) and of local recurrence. This approach was tested in a cohort to estimate its effect on survival.
Patients And Methods:
Three-dimensional, conformal radiation to the primary tumor (55.8 Gy) and the lymphatics (50.4 Gy) was combined with chemotherapy. Resection was performed 6 weeks after completion of chemoradiation.
Results:
38 of 120 patients with locally advanced cancer underwent tumor resection thereafter. Three patients (8%) had pathologic complete response. Median tumor-specific survival was 29 months and overall survival 25 months. Patients with clear margins (35/38; 89%) had a 3-year disease-specific survival rate of 51% versus 0% with positive margins (p = 0.008). Nodal disease rate decreased from 50% at pretherapeutic imaging to 32% at resection. Patients with ypN0 status (n = 26/38) had a 3-year tumor-specific survival rate of 50% compared to 31% in patients with ypN1 status. At multivariate analysis, resection status and nodal spread significantly predicted tumor-specific survival. Chemoradiation was generally well tolerated.
Conclusion:
The current results support randomized testing of neoadjuvant chemoradiation to prove survival prolongation. Compared to the literature this approach seems to reduce the number of positive nodes.
