Gemcitabine/Taxane Adjuvant Therapy in Resected Pancreatic Cancer: A Signal of Improved Survival?

392 Background: Gemcitabine-taxane combination chemotherapy has demonstrated a survival benefit in metastatic pancreatic cancer (PC). We present our experience with gemcitabine/docetaxel (gem/tax) based adjuvant treatment (Rx) following curative intent surgery. Methods: Patients with upfront resectable PC from January 1, 2010 to December 31, 2015 were identified from our institutional database and tumor registry. We included resected patients who received gem/tax as initial Rx administered exclusively at our institution with or without chemoradiation (CRTx). Patients were excluded if they died or recurred prior to Rx or received neoadjuvant Rx. Survival was estimated by Kaplan-Meier methods and prognostic factors identified by Cox regression. Results: Of 185 eligible patients, 58 met study criteria. Characteristics included: median age of diagnosis 64.9 years, female gender 56.9%, Whipple procedure 69% and R1 resection in 55.2%%. Tumour characteristics included: median size 28.0mm, poor differentiation 53.5% and AJCC stage 2A/2B 27.6%/67.2%. Patients completing ≥ 80% of 24 week Rx was 89.7% (n = 52). Of those patients, 71.2% received post gem/tax CRTx. With a 51.2 month median follow-up (95%CI: 37.1-55.7), median disease-free survival (DFS) and overall survival (OS) were 35 months (95%CI: 20.7-NR) and 52.3 months (95%CI: 27.4-NR), respectively. Five year OS was 49.5% (95%CI: 33.7-63.4). Patients receiving CRTx (n = 37) had a superior OS compared to patients who only completed gem/tax Rx (n = 15)(61.5 vs. 26.7 months, p = 0.04). Prognostic variables impacting OS on multivariate analysis (HR, 95%CI) included: margin status (4.55, 1.46-14.2, p = 0.01), AJCC stage (10.9, 2.46-47.9, p = 0.002) and administration of CRTx (0.08, 0.03-0.24, p < 0.000). Variables impacting DFS included: AJCC stage (3.29, 1.15-9.41, p = 0.03), tumour size (2.59, 1.11-6.04, p = 0.03) and administration of CRTx (0.23, 0.09-0.56, p = 0.001). Conclusions: In this select cohort of resected PC patients with adverse pathologic features, adjuvant gem/tax with or without CRTx is feasible with favorable DFS and OS. These findings support further prospective studies of gem/taxane-based adjuvant Rx in PC.