Geriatric Assessment Directed Trial to Evaluate Gemcitabine +/- Nab-paclitaxel in Elderly Pancreatic Cancer Patients

The hypothesis of the proposed study is that individualized assessment directed treatment algorithms identifies elderly patients, who benefit from combined nab-paclitaxel/gemcitabine therapy. The project uses a CGA, which includes various tests and scoring systems, to stratify patients as "GO-GO", "SLOW-GO" or "FRAIL" patients. Depending on test results patients receive chemotherapy (GO-GO group: nab-paclitaxel/gemcitabine; SLOW-GO group: gemcitabine monotherapy) or best supportive care (FRAIL group). After the first cycle of chemotherapy (4 weeks) a subsequent CGA and a safety assessment will be performed to assign patients to their definite treatment arm. The primary objective is that CGA-stratified patients do not decline in their CGA performance in response to chemotherapy measured as a loss of five points or less in the Barthel's ADL (ADL1 vs. ADL2 during core CGA assessment).