The 8-year European Study Group for Pancreatic Cancer has determined that adjuvant chemotherapy for periampullary neoplasms prolongs survival compared with surgery alone. Is now the time to implement social networks or other web-based applications to assist investigators and clinicians to find the optimal treatment faster?
Key Points
Patients who adequately recover from pancreaticoduodenectomy for treatment of a localized periampullary adenocarcinoma should be offered 24 weeks of adjuvant systemic therapy of fluoropyrimidine-based or gemcitabine-based therapy.
This is a preview of subscription content, access via your institution
Access options
Subscribe to this journal
Receive 12 print issues and online access
$209.00 per year
only $17.42 per issue
Buy this article
- Purchase on Springer Link
- Instant access to full article PDF
Prices may be subject to local taxes which are calculated during checkout
References
Whipple, A. O., Parsons, W. B. & Mullins, C. R. Treatment of carcinoma of the ampulla of Vater. Ann. Surg. 102, 763–779 (1935).
Kalser, M. H. & Ellenberg, S. S. Pancreatic cancer. Adjuvant combined radiation and chemotherapy following curative resection. Arch. Surg. 120, 899–903 (1985).
O'Reilly, E. M. Refinement of adjuvant therapy for pancreatic cancer. JAMA 304, 1124–1125 (2010).
Neoptolemos, J. P. et al. Effect of adjuvant chemotherapy with fluorouracil plus folinic acid or gemcitabine vs observation on survival in patients with resected periampullary adenocarcinoma. The ESPAC-3 periampullary cancer randomized trial. JAMA 308, 147–156 (2012).
Valle, J. et al. Cisplatin plus gemcitabine versus gemcitabine for biliary tract cancer. N. Engl. J. Med. 362, 1273–1281 (2010).
Overman, M. J. et al. Phase II study of capecitabine and oxaliplatin for advanced adenocarcinoma of the small bowel and ampulla of Vater. J. Clin. Oncol. 27, 2598–2603 (2009).
Polich, G. R. Rare disease patient groups as clinical researchers. Drug Disc. Today 17, 167–172 (2011).
Cardinale, V. et al. The biliary tree-a reservoir of multipotent stem cells. Nat. Rev. Gastroenterol. Hepatol. 9, 231–240 (2012).
Kohler, I. et al. Phenotypic and genotypic characterization of carcinomas of the papilla of Vater has prognostic and putative therapeutic implications. Am. J. Clin. Pathol. 135, 202–211 (2011).
Author information
Authors and Affiliations
Ethics declarations
Competing interests
The author has acted as a consultant for Eli Lilly and Company.
Rights and permissions
About this article
Cite this article
Wolff, R. Is it time for Dr Whipple's orphans to have a Facebook page?. Nat Rev Clin Oncol 9, 553–554 (2012). https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2012.154
Published:
Issue Date:
DOI: https://doi.org/10.1038/nrclinonc.2012.154