TURKISH JOURNAL OF ONCOLOGY 2014 , Vol 29 , Num 3
Long term survival of a metastatic patient with pancreatic adenocarcinoma: a rare case report and review of the literature
Mustafa DEĞİRMENCİ1, Umut VAROL2, Alp ÖZGÜZER3, Mehmet BOZKURT4, Canfeza SEZGİN5
1Department of Medical Oncology, İzmir Tepecik Training and Research Hospital, İzmir
2Department of Medical Oncology, İzmir Katip Çelebi University Atatürk Training and Research Hospital, İzmir
3Department of Pathology, İzmir Tepecik Tepecik Training and Research Hospital, İzmir
4Department of Radiology, İzmir Tepecik Training and Research, İzmir
5Department of Medical Oncology, Ege University Tülay Aktaş Oncology Hospital, İzmir
Despite recent advances in therapeutics, the prognosis of patients with advanced pancreatic cancer has remained poor. Median survival of patient is 3-6 months and five year survival rate is less than 5%. We report a case of fifty-five-yearold male with complaints of abdominal pain and weight loss. Patient was diagnosed as pancreas adenocarcinoma with multiple hepatic metastases. Then, the patient received gemcitabine 1250 mg/m2 at day 1 and 8; cisplatin 80 mg/m2 at day 1 and a cycle of therapy was defined as 21 days. After six cycles, partial response was achieved, but associated with grade 3 neutropenia. So, cisplatin was stopped and patient was treated with gemcitabine monotherapy. After 18 cycles, complete response in hepatic metastases was observed with magnetic resonance imaging. Due to hematologic and renal toxicity, only gemcitabine monotherapy was continued in our patient, but still indicating complete remission in his fifth year. Keywords : Metastasis; long-term survival; pancreatic cancer