Gemcitabine concurrent with radiation for locally advanced pancreatic cancer

Gemcitabine (GEM) concurrent with radiation is clinically not well defined. We herein report four cases of chemo-radiotherapy against locally advanced pancreatic cancer using low-dose GEM concurrent with extra-beam radiation. A total of eight cases entered the study. Three were resected and five were non-resected cases. Intraoperative radiation was carried out in every case using an 8 or 10 centimeter cone with a radiation dose of 25 Gy. Postoperative radiation was 2 Gy per day on weekdays for 5 weeks. Four cases were concurrent with low-dose GEM (40 mg/m2) twice a week, whereas the other four were radiation only. With the use of GEM concurrent with radiation, tumor markers decreased more than 80 percent regardless of the tumor resection. CT scan confirmed a necrotic change and the decrease of the tumor size. In conclusion, low dose GEM concurrent with radiation therapy may be a promising therapeutic choice for the local control of advanced pancreatic cancers.