Immunotherapy for patients with advanced pancreatic carcinoma: a promising treatment

There are limited data on the safety and efficacy of immunotherapy for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer (APC). A meta-analysis of single-arm trials is proposed to assess the efficacy and safety of immunotherapy for APC. Eighteen relevant studies involving 527 patients were identified. The pooled disease control rate (DCR), overall survival (OS), progression free survival (PFS), and 1-year survival rate were estimated as 59.32%, 7.90 months, 4.25 months, and 30.12%, respectively. Subgroup analysis showed that the pooled OS, PFS, and 1-year survival rate were significantly higher for autologous activated lymphocyte therapy compared with peptide-based vaccine therapy (OS: 8.28 months vs. 7.40 months; PFS: 6.04 months vs. 3.86 months; 1-year survival rate: 37.17% vs. 19.74%). Another subgroup analysis demonstrated that the pooled endpoints were estimated as obviously higher for immunotherapy plus chemotherapy compared with immunotherapy alone (DCR: 62.51% vs. 47.63%; OS: 8.67 months vs. 4.91 months; PFS: 4.91 months vs. 3.34 months; 1-year survival rate: 32.32% vs. 21.43%). Of the included trials, seven trials reported no treatment related adverse events , five trials reported (16.6 ± 3.9) % grade 3 adverse events and no grade 4 adverse events. In conclusion, immunotherapy is safe and effective in the treatment of APC.