Changes to This Summary (05/17/2013)

The PDQ cancer information summaries are reviewed regularly and updated as new information becomes available. This section describes the latest changes made to this summary as of the date above.

This summary was reformatted.

Stage I and Stage II Pancreatic Cancer Treatment

Added text about a 5-year update of the Radiation Therapy Oncology Group (RTOG)-9704 trial, which reported that patients with pancreatic head tumors had a median survival and 5-year overall survival of 20.5 months and 22% survival rate with gemcitabine, versus 17.1 months and 18% with 5-fluorouracil. Also added text about a secondary analysis of RTOG-9704 that explored the correlation of adherence to protocol-specified radiation with patient outcomes.

Added text to state that the European Organization for the Research and Treatment of Cancer/U.S. Gastrointestinal Intergroup (RTOG-0848) phase III adjuvant trial evaluating the impact of chemoradiation after completion of a full course of gemcitabine with or without erlotinib is currently enrolling patients.

This summary is written and maintained by the PDQ Adult Treatment Editorial Board, which is editorially independent of NCI. The summary reflects an independent review of the literature and does not represent a policy statement of NCI or NIH. More information about summary policies and the role of the PDQ Editorial Boards in maintaining the PDQ summaries can be found on the About This PDQ Summary and PDQ NCI's Comprehensive Cancer Database pages.