Discussion EBRT plus chemotherapy Long-term disease-control and survival are infrequent for patients with locally unresectable pancreas cancer treated with EBRT or CRT alone. CRT results in a doubling of BMS-754807 solubility dmso median survival when compared with surgical bypass or stents alone (3-6 months vs. 9-13 months) and an increase in 2-year OS from 0-5% to 10-20% (1-4). Five-year survivors are rare, however, and local control is not common. Even with EBRT doses of Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 60-70 Gy in 1.8 to 2 Gy fractions, local failure was documented in at least two-thirds of the patients in a series from Thomas Jefferson University (3,4). EBRT plus IORT The combination of EBRT plus intraoperative electrons for patients with locally unresectable

pancreas cancer resulted in an improvement in local control in IOERT series from MGH, Mayo and other institutions (5-10). This did Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical not, however, translate into major improvements in either median or two-year survival. In the most recent update of results from Massachusetts General Hospital, 150 patients with locally unresectable pancreas ductal ACA received IOERT as a component of treatment from 1978 to 2001 in conjunction with EBRT and 5-FU based chemotherapy (14). Long-term survival was seen in 8 patients and 5 were alive at

or beyond the 5-year interval. Actuarial 1-, 2-, 3- and 5-year OS for the 150 patients was 54%, 15%, 7% and 4% respectively and median survival was 13 months. Survival was significantly Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical related to the diameter of the IOERT treatment applicator (surrogate for tumor size). In the 26 patients treated

with a 5 or 6 cm applicator, 2- Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical and 3-year OS were 27% and 17%; 0/11 patients treated with a 9 cm diameter applicator survived beyond 18 months and those treated with a 7 or 8 cm applicator had intermediate survival (P<0.05). In the initial Mayo Clinic Cancer Center—Rochester (MCCC-R) IORT Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical series of patients with locally unresectable pancreas ACA, IOERT usually preceded EBRT (6). When results were compared with EBRT ± 5-FU (no IOERT), local control at one year was 82% for EBRT plus IORT ± 5-FU versus 48% for EBRT ± 5-FU; at two years it was 66% versus 20%, respectively (P=0.0005). The improvement in local control did not, however, translate into a difference in either median or two-year OS (13.4 months median OS with IOERT versus 12.6 months without; 12% versus 16.5% 2-year OS). The lack of survival improvement was related to a high incidence of abdominal failure in both groups of patients (20 of 37 IOERT patients, or 54% developed liver the or peritoneal metastases versus 68 of 122 or 56% in non-IOERT patients). Pre-operative therapy In an attempt to improve patient selection and survival, investigators from MCCC-R delivered the EBRT plus chemo before restaging and exploration (11). In 27 patients with locally unresectable pancreas ACA who received IOERT after preoperative CRT, local control was achieved in 21 patients (78% with actuarial rates of 86% and 68% at 1 and 2 years, respectively).