Historically, most pancreatic cancer patients whose tumors grow outside the pancreas to encompass veins and arteries have been told the cancer is inoperable and they should prepare for an average survival time of 12 to 18 months.
Historically, most pancreatic cancer patients whose tumors grow outside the pancreas to encompass veins and arteries have been told the cancer is inoperable and they should prepare for an average survival time of 12 to 18 months. A newly published Mayo Clinic study finds that a pre-surgery treatment plan focused on three factors can extend life years beyond that. The findings are published in the Annals of Surgery, the journal of the American Surgical Association and European Surgical Association.
The study followed 194 Mayo Clinic patients who received chemotherapy followed by radiation and surgery. An average survival time of 58.8 months, or just under five years, was achieved. The researchers found that patients with these three factors had significantly longer survival times than those who did not:
- Extended chemotherapy before surgery; the more cycles they had, the longer the survival.
- A CA 19-9 tumor marker that fell to a normal level after chemotherapy.
- A tumor that, when surgically removed, was found to be all or mostly dead due to chemotherapy.
Read more at Mayo Clinic
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