Phase II clinical study of alternate-day oral therapy with S-1 as first-line chemotherapy for locally advanced and metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Purpose: Based on the results of first-line chemotherapy for advanced pancreatic cancer, S-1 was confirmed to be non-inferior to gemcitabine. However, the recommended regimen of 4 weeks of administration followed by 2 weeks of drug withdrawal frequently causes adverse effects. On the other hand, we experienced in clinical practice that alternate-day administration of S-1 reduced adverse effects and were tolerable for advanced pancreatic cancer patients unwilling to continue the standard daily administration.

[Effectiveness of S-1 therapy for unresectable/advanced pancreas cancer].

Purpose: Although the susceptibility to chemotherapy of unresectable/advanced pancreatic cancer is very poor, the usefulness of new anticancer drugs, such as S-1, has been reported in recent years. We clinically investigated whether or not S-1 would prolong survival in this study.

Objective: 17 unresectable pancreatic cancer patients who came for consultation between November 2001 and August 2008 (ten men, seven women).