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Gemcitabine: a new approach to treating pancreatic cancer
Purpose/Objectives:
To review the clinical benefit and nursing considerations of the new anticancer agent gemcitabine hydrochloride in the treatment of patients with pancreatic cancer.
Data Sources:
Peer-reviewed publications, books.
Data Synthesis:
Unsatisfactory tools for assessment of pancreatic cancer have led to the development of a novel end point, "clinical benefit," to assess improvements in disease-related symptoms and performance status. The first clinical studies to use this end point assessed gemcitabine, Results showed that 24% of patients on gemcitabine were clinical benefit responders compared to 5% of patients on 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). In patients refractory to 5-FU, 27% showed a clinical benefit response to gemcitabine.
Conclusions:
Gemcitabine provides significantly better clinical benefit than standard treatment for pancreatic cancer.
Implications For Nursing Practice:
Clinical benefit assessments rely on oncology nurses to classify the response to treatment in addition to managing the side effects.