Clinical effects of chemoradiotherapy in pursuit of optimal treatment of locally advanced unresectable pancreatic cancer

Objective:The treatment of locally advanced unresectable pancreatic cancer remains extremely challenging, particularly as the efficacy of concurrent chemoradiotherapy (CRT) remains unclear.Methods:We studied 93 patients (8.0%) with locally advanced unresectable pancreatic cancer without distant metastases from among a total group of 1168 patients who were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer from March 2005 to November 2015 at the Kochi Health Sciences Center, Kochi, Japan. We therefore evaluated the clinical efficacy of CRT in patients with locally advanced unresectable pancreatic cancer.Results:Of the 93 patients with locally advanced unresectable pancreatic cancer, 35 patients (37.6%) were subsequently classified as having resectable disease following CRT. The median overall survival of patients who received CRT alone for locally advanced unresectable pancreatic cancer was 8.0 months, and all died within 3 years. On the other hand, the overall 1-, 3- and 5-year survival rates in patients who were reclassif...