Transcatheter Arterial Infusion to Patients With Advanced Pancreatic Cancer

Pancreatic cancer is a highly lethal malignancy with a 5-year survival less than 10%. Approximately 80% of patients with pancreatic cancer are diagnosed at an advanced stage. Chemotherapy is one of the major treatments for advanced pancreatic cancer. The MPACT trial has confirmed the efficacy of gemcitabine combined with nab-paclitaxel as the first-line treatment to metastatic pancreatic cancer. However, the side-effects related to gemcitabine combined with nab-paclitaxel including anemia, hand/foot numbness, fatigue, nausea, and malnutrition have impaired the tolerability of the regimen. Regional intra-arterial infusion chemotherapy helps to deliver anticancer drugs into the carcinoma tissue more selectively and is considered to be a potential alternative treatment for advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma with less systemic adverse effects. Ohigashi et al first reported that intraarterial chemotherapy using 5-fluorouracil improved the prognosis and quality of life in patients with advanced pancreatic carcinoma. The purpose of this study is to evaluate the efficacy of gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel venous injection plus transcatheter arterial infusion to patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Progression-free survival (PFS), objective response rate (ORR), overall survival (OS) and disease control rate (DCR) are measured every three weeks.