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Updated: Mar 29, 2026
Treatment of Middle-segment Pancreatic Benign Tumor Using Laparoscopic Central Pancreatectomy with End-to-end Pancreatic Duct Reconstruction
Published on: January 2, 2026
Second-Line Treatment in Pancreatic Cancer Patients: Who Profits?--Results From the CONKO Study Group
Marianne Sinn1, Louise Dälken, Jana Käthe Striefler
1From the *Department of Medical Oncology and Haematology, Charité Universitätsmedizin Berlin, Berlin, Germany; and †Department of Gastroenterology, Hepatology and Endocrinology, Medizinische Hochschule Hannover, Hannover, Germany.
Objectives:
With increasing numbers of therapeutic options in inoperable pancreatic cancer (PAC), patients tend to receive more than just a first line (FL) therapy.
Methods:
All patients who started FL for PAC at our institution (1997-2012) were retrospectively studied to identify patient's and treatment characteristics. Significant parameters in regard to second-line (SL) related survival were looked for as the basis for a prognostic model. This score was validated in a patient cohort from the CONKO-003 study.
Results:
Two hundred eighty of 521 (53.7%) patients received SL therapy, median overall survival (OS) from the beginning of SL (OS2) was 5.1 months. Significant more SL patients had undergone surgery, a higher Karnofsky performance state (KPS) and a duration of FL longer than 4 months.Prognostic factors impacting OS2 were KPS, carbohydrate antigen 19-9 levels at start of SL and the duration of FL. These 3 factors establish a prognostic score--validated in CONKO-003--for SL patients with 3 subgroups: "good" (median OS2, 9.3 months), "intermediate" (median OS2, 7.1 months), "poor" prognosis (median OS2, 3.8 months; P < 0.001).
Conclusions:
Among patients with PAC, more than 50% receive SL therapy. Our prognostic model identifies 3 subgroups and can identify patients with a maximum benefit of SL therapy.
