Pancreatic cancer. Evaluation of prognostic factors and treatment results

From 1969 to 1984, 125 patients (49 women and 76 men) with pancreatic cancer were treated at the Department of Radiotherapy at Turku University Central Hospital. The mean age of the patients was 63 years. Surgery was the only treatment in 40 cases, 22 patients received radiotherapy, 27 chemotherapy, and 13 received both radiotherapy and chemotherapy after surgery or as the only treatment; 23 patients received no active therapy. The average survival time was 7.5 months. The mean survival times of patients in the purely surgical group was 8.1 months, in the radiotherapy group 8.7 months, in the chemotherapy group 8.1 months, and in the group which received both radiotherapy and chemotherapy 9.7 months. The average survival time of patients who received neither surgical nor oncological treatment was significantly shorter (3.2 months). Statistically significant factors regarding shorter survival times were metastases at presentation (survival time 3.9 months), and poor general condition (Karnofsky index less than 60; survival time 4.4 months).