Neoadjuvant Chemotherapy Versus Upfront Surgery for Resectable Pancreatic Adenocarcinoma: An Updated Nationwide Study

The objective of this study was to assess the association of survival with neoadjuvant chemotherapy (NAC) in resectable pancreatic adenocarcinoma (PDAC).

The early control of potential micrometastases and patient selection using NAC has been advocated for patients with PDAC. However, the role of NAC for resectable PDAC remains unclear.

Patients with clinical T1 and T2 PDAC were identified in the National Cancer Database from 2010 to 2017. Kaplan-Meier estimates, and Cox regression models were used to compare survival. To address immortal time bias, landmark analysis was performed. Interactions between preoperative factors and NAC were investigated in subgroup analyses. A propensity score analysis was performed to compare survival between multiagent NAC and upfront surgery.

In total, 4041 patients were treated with upfront surgery and 1,175 patients were treated with NAC (79.4% multiagent NAC, 20.6% single-agent NAC). Using a landmark time of 6 months after diagnosis, patients treated with multiagent NAC had longer median overall survival compared with upfront surgery and single-agent NAC. (35.8 vs 27.1 vs 27.4 mo). Multiagent NAC was associated with lower mortality rates compared with upfront surgery (adjusted hazard ratio, 0.77; 95% CI, 0.70-0.85), whereas single-agent NAC was not. The association of survival with multiagent NAC were consistent in analyses using the matched data sets. Interaction analysis revealed that the association between multiagent NAC and a lower mortality rate did not significantly differ across age, facility type, tumor location, CA 19-9 levels, and clinical T/N stages.

The findings suggest that multiagent NAC followed by resection is associated with improved survival compared with upfront surgery.