Palliative chemotherapy for gastroesophageal cancer in old and very old patients: A retrospective cohort study at the National Center for Tumor Diseases, Heidelberg

AIM:To investigate the outcome of palliative chemotherapy in old patients with gastroesophageal cancer at the National Center for Tumor Diseases,Heidelberg.METHODS:Using a prospectively generated database,we retrospectively analyzed 55 patients≥70years under palliative chemotherapy for advanced gastroesophageal cancer at the outpatient clinic of the National Center for Tumor Diseases Heidelberg,Germany between January 2006 and December2013.Further requirements for inclusion were(1)histologically proven diagnosis of gastroesophageal cancer;(2)advanced(metastatic or inoperable)disease;and(3)no history of radiation or radiochemotherapy.The clinical information included Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group performance status(ECOG PS),presence and site of metastases at diagnosis,date of previous surgery and perioperative chemotherapy,start and stop date of first-line treatment,toxicities and consecutive dosage reductions of first-line treatment,response to first-line therapy,date of progression,usage of second-line therapies and date and cause of death.Survival times[progression-free survival(PFS),overall survival(OS)and residual survival(RS)]were calculated.Toxicity and safety were examined.Prognostic factors including ECOG PS,age and previousperioperative treatment were analyzed.RESULTS:Median age of our cohort was 76 years.86%of patients received a combination of two cytotoxic drugs.76 percent of patients had an oxaliplatin-based first-line therapy with the oxaliplatin and 5-fluorouracil regimen being the predominantely chosen regimen(69%).Drug modifications due to toxicity were necessary in 56%of patients,and 11%of patients stopped treatment due to toxicities.Survival times of our cohort are in good accordance with the major phaseⅢtrials that included mostly younger patients:PFS and OS were 5.8 and 9.5 mo,respectively.Survival differed significantly between patient groups with low(≤1)and high(≥2)ECOG PS(12.7 mo vs 3.8 mo,P<0.001).Very old patients(≥75 years)did not show a worse outcome in terms of survival.Patients receiving secondline treatment(51%)had a significantly longer RS than patients with best supportive care(6.8 vs 1.4 mo,P=0.001).Initial ECOG PS was a strong prognostic factor for PFS,OS and RS.CONCLUSION:Old patients with non-curable gastroesophageal cancer should be offered chemotherapy,and ECOG PS is a tool for balancing benefit and harm upfront.Second-line treatment is reasonable.

Cancer-related microangiopathic hemolytic anemia in patients with advanced gastric cancer: A retrospective single-center analysis

BACKGROUND Microangiopathic hemolytic anemia(MAHA) with thrombocytopenia and organ failure caused by tumor-associated thrombotic microangiopathy(TMA) is a lifethreatening oncological emergency. Rapid diagnosis and precise distinction from other forms of TMA is crucial for appropriate therapy, which aims at treating the underlying malignancy. However, the prognosis of patients with cancer-related(CR)-MAHA is limited. To date, less than 50 patients with gastric cancer and CRMAHA have been reported, mainly as single case reports, and detailed information on treatment strategies and outcome are scarce. We analyzed the characteristics and outcomes data of CR-MAHA patients with gastric cancer treated at our center between 2012 and 2019.AIM To gain knowledge about CR-MAHA and the course of disease.METHODS We retrospectively analyzed patients using an institutional prospectively maintained database. Patients who had CR-MAHA but other cancer types or cancer of unknown primary were excluded. The basic requirements for inclusion were: Histologically proven gastric adenocarcinoma;and clinical diagnosis of hemolytic anemia with schistocytes with or without thrombocytopenia. The observation period for each patient started with the first day of documented symptoms. The follow-up period for this analysis ended on February 1, 2020.RESULTS We identified eight patients with a median age of 54 years. Histologically, all patients had(partial) diffuse subtypes of gastric adenocarcinoma with partial or complete signet cell morphology. All patients had metastatic disease and one patient had a microsatellite instability-high(MSI-H) tumor. In three patients, clinical signs of MAHA preceded the diagnosis of cancer, and in two patients, CRMAHA indicated recurrent disease. All patients had severe hemolytic anemia and thrombocytopenia. Six patients experienced severe bone pain, and five patients had dyspnea. Systemic, 5-fluorouracil-based combination chemotherapy was initiated in six patients, which resulted in rapid initial response with significant improvement of clinical symptoms and blood values. Progression-free survival(PFS) of the whole cohort was 1.9 wk and median overall survival(OS) was 1.9 wk. For patients with chemotherapy, PFS was 9.0 wk and OS was 10.3 wk. The patient with the MSI-H tumor has been undergoing immunotherapy for more than 3 years.CONCLUSION The benefit of chemotherapy in CR-MAHA patients is limited. Immunotherapy for patients with MSI-H tumors may lead to long-term tumor control even in CRMAHA patients.

Pancreatic cancer–Palliative therapy: chemotherapy

Single-agent Gemcitabine has been the standard treatment for advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma in the past years. Due to the aggressive and often chemotherapy-refractory character of this malignancy, systemic treatment options still remain limited. Many combination therapies have been evaluated in clinical trials to improve survival over Gemcitabine alone, until recently without satisfying results. Based on the positive results of a recent randomized trial, the combination of Gemcitabine and Capecitabine might become a new standard as first-line treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer. The clinical advantage of Erlotinib as a novel targeted agent in combination with Gemcitabine seems to be only marginal. Due to the small number of studies, there is still no standard of care in second-line therapy, but Oxaliplatin seems to be an active treatment option in Gemcitabine refractory disease. This article will review the development of cytotoxic antitumoral treatment for advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma (locally advanced, irresectable and/or metastatic disease) including monotherapies and newer approaches with combination therapies.