Comparison of gemcitabine plus cisplatin versus capecitabine plus cisplatin as first-line chemotherapy for advanced...

It remains unclear whether capecitabine combined with cisplatin would show similar effects compared with standard therapy using gemcitabine and cisplatin in advanced biliary tract cancer (BTC).

Patients with advanced BTC who were treated with first-line chemotherapy at Asan Medical Center were retrospectively analyzed. All patients received either cisplatin followed by gemcitabine on days 1 and 8 every 3 weeks (GP group), or capecitabine on days 1-14 with cisplatin on day 1 every 3 weeks (XP group).

Of the 134 patients who met the inclusion criteria, 78 received XP and 56 were treated with GP. After a median follow-up of 26.2 months, the progression-free survival was 5.7 months for XP versus 4.1 months for GP (hazard ratio [HR] = 0.81, P = 0.31). The overall survival (OS) was 11.0 months for XP versus 9.8 months for GP (HR = 0.84, P = 0.36). In the multivariate analysis, there were no significant differences in PFS and OS between the two groups.

XP seems to be as effective as GP in patients with advanced BTC. The XP regimen is feasible and might offer increased convenience regarding the schedule of drug administration.