Age as a prognostic indicator for adjuvant therapy in patients who underwent pancreatic resections for cancer

Purpose

In pancreatic cancer, the greatest increase in survival is attained by surgical resection followed by adjuvant chemotherapy. Although surgical complications and functional status are recognized as independent factors for halting adjuvant therapy in patients that undergo pancreatic resections, other elements may play a role in deciding which patients get treated postoperatively. Here we determined demographic and clinical characteristics of patients receiving adjuvant chemotherapy, with the primary intent to investigate if age alone affects rates of adjuvant therapy.

Methods/Materials

National Cancer Database (NCDB) was queried for patients that underwent surgery for pancreatic cancer. Groups were divided into: adjuvant chemotherapy (n = 17,924) and no adjuvant chemotherapy (n = 12,947). Basic demographics and treatment characteristics were analyzed. Age was compared with an independent means test; other comparisons used Chi-square test of independence.

Results

There was a statistical difference in age (adjuvant therapy 64.86 ± 9.89 vs. no therapy 67.78 ± 11.22, p < 0.001), insurance type, facility type, and cancer stage for patients that received adjuvant therapy and those that did not. Average age of patients not receiving chemotherapy was significantly older at each pathologic stage. Subset analysis of patients treated with chemotherapy showed that the majority of patients received single agent regimens (62%), at an average of 59 days following surgery, and at academic cancer programs (52%).

Conclusions

Regardless of postoperative complications and functional status, age alone appears to affect rates of adjuvant therapy in patients with resected pancreatic cancer. Older patients should be offered tailored regimens that would allow them to complete the intended extent of treatment.