Summary The efficacy and safety of gemcitabine at a starting dose of 800 mg m2 administered once a week for 3 weeks with 1 week's rest was investigated in chemonaive patients with advanced and/or metastatic pancreatic cancer. Of 34 patients, 32 were evaluable for efficacy, 20 patients had metastatic stage IV disease, 25 had a performance status of I and 26 (76%) patients has significant pain on presentation. All responses were independently validated by an external oncology review board: two patients achieved a partial response that lasted 5.8 and 5.2 months (6.3%) and six patients were stable for at least 4 weeks. The median duration of survival for evaluable patients was 6.3 months (range 1.6-19.2 months). The tumour markers, CEA, CA 19-9 and CA 195 were serially measured in 16 patients. There was a good correlation with tumour response when all three markers were significantly decreased. In 4 of 16 patients, tumour marker levels decreased by > 60%, including the two responders, one patient who survived for 12 months and one patient who showed objective tumour shrinkage but was deemed ineligible for response evaluation because the disease was considered not to be bidimensionally measurable. Symptomatic benefits included improvement in performance status (17.2%), analgesic requirement (7.4%), pain score (28.6%) and nausea (27.3%). The mean number of cycles administered was 2.5 and the mean dosage received was 890 mg m2 per injection. Seventy-four per cent of dose administrations were given on schedule. Toxicity, particularly haematological toxicity, reported as the maximum WHO grade experienced by patients was mild. Infective episodes were rare and limited to WHO grade 2 (6.7%). Nausea and vomitimg was generally modest (WHO grade 3, 26.7%). Other side-effects included mild transient flu-like symptoms (seven patients) and peripheral oedema (three patients), which was not associated with abnormal cardiac hepatic or renal function. Gemcitabine has modest activity in pancreatic cancer, a limited positive improvement on a range of patient benefit parameters and has a mild toxicity profile. For these reasons and because of its novel mode of action, gemcitabine warrants further investigation in combination studies in pancreatic cancer.

This combined treatment modality is active in LAEC, with a PCR in 33% of the patients undergoing surgery. The results appear improved compared with those reported with surgery alone, by approximately doubling the 3-year survival rate. The high efficacy of preoperative chemoradiation warrants evaluation of the role of surgery in LAEC.

We report a retrospective analysis of 71 patients, operated for primary small bowel tumors (SBT): 47 malignant (66.2%) and 24 benign (33.8%) tumors. Of the malignant tumors, adenocarcinomas predominated (38.3%), followed by neuroendocrine tumors (31.9%), Non-Hodgkin lymphomas (NHL) (12.8%), leiomyosarcomas (10.6%) and other rare entities (6.4%). Morbidity of surgical treatment was 16.9%, 30-day mortality 7%. The estimated 5-year survival rate in malignant lesions was 31.8%. Univariate analysis identified the presence of distant metastasis and the resection status (R status) as prognostic factors (p = 0.034 and p = 0.001). There was no influence of T, N status or grading on survival. A complete macroscopic and microscopic tumor resection has to be the aim of any curative surgical approach in patients with SBT.

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