Progress report. A randomized multicenter European study comparing adjuvant radiotherapy, 6-mo chemotherapy, and combination therapy vs no-adjuvant treatment in resectable pancreatic cancer (ESPAC-1).

Conclusion: The ESPAC-1 trial is the largest study of its kind in pancreatic cancer and should definitively address the question of the role of conventional methods of adjuvant treatment in pancreatic cancer.

Background: At the joint International Association of Pancreatology and the European Pancreatic Club meeting in Mannheim, Germany (June 12-15, 1996) a satellite meeting of the European Study Group for Pancreatic Cancer (ESPAC) met to discuss the progress of the ESPAC-1 trial.

Methods: A randomized multicenter study to address which, if any, of the following adjuvant treatments are of benefit in patients with resectable pancreatic cancer: radiotherapy (40 Gy with 5-FU as a sensitizing agent), 6 mo of chemotherapy (5-FU and folinic acid), or a combination of these treatments.

Results: From February 1994 to June 1996 (the time of the Mannheim meeting) 221 patients so far have been recruited into the three treatment arms and one control arm.