Health-related quality of life for gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel plus radiotherapy versus gemcitabine and S-1 plus radiotherapy in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Purpose: To compare the effects of gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel (GT) plus stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT) or gemcitabine and S-1 (GS) plus SBRT on health-related quality of life (HRQOL) of metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Methods: Patients with biopsy-proven and radiographically metastatic pancreatic cancer were included. HRQOL was assessed using the Chinese version of Brief Pain Inventory (BPI) and 5-level European quality of life 5-dimensions (EQ-5D-5L). Data were analyzed with Spearman's rank correlation, ordinal regression, and propensity score-matched analysis.

Results: A total of 75 and 89 patients received GT and GS, respectively. The median biological effective dose of GT group and GS group was 59.5 Gy (range 48-85.5 Gy) and 64.4 Gy (range 52.48-85.5 Gy) in 5-8 fractions, respectively. More patients in the GS group had improvement in BPI and EQ-5D-5L compared with those in the GT group (n=38 vs n=15, <0.001; n=42 vs n=20, <0.001). No differences of BPI scores were found between pre- and post-treatment in each group, while only the post-treatment EQ-5D-5L score was higher than that at baseline in GS the group (<0.001). Compared with GS group, it was unlikely for patients receiving GT to have better BPI and EQ-5D-5L. After propensity-matched analysis, more patients in GS group had improvement in BPI and EQ-5D-5L (n=24 vs n=12, =0.002; n=28 vs n=16, =0.002). Furthermore, patients with GS had a superior overall survival than those with GT (11.1 months [95% CI: 10.6-11.6 months] vs 9.9 months [95% CI: 8.8-11.0 months]; =0.005). Both incidences of grade 3 hematological (=0.024) and gastrointestinal (=0.049) toxicities were higher in the GT group.

Conclusion: GS may achieve better HRQOL than GT. Therefore, GS may be an alternative of GT for metastatic pancreatic cancer, especially for Asians.