Abstract
Background: The carbohydrate antigen 19-9 (CA 19-9) is currently the most widely used serum tumor marker in pancreatic cancer (PC). CA 19-9 pretreatment levels as well as CA 19-9 kinetics during systemic chemotherapy can provide prognostic information regarding survival of patients with metastatic PC. Case Reports: We report the clinical course of 2 patients with metastatic PC who underwent palliative chemotherapy with gemcitabine. Both patients showed a significant elevation of pretreatment CA 19-9 levels (7,505 and 150,000 U/ml, respectively), however, subsequently they experienced a highly significant reduction (>90%) of CA 19-9 kinetics under gemcitabine chemotherapy. A good disease control and a clinical benefit response were achieved in both patients. Time to tumor progression was 30 weeks and 28 weeks, overall survival 14 months and 11 months, respectively. Conclusion: These data indicate that CA 19-9 kinetics under chemotherapy may possibly serve as a useful surrogate marker for time to tumor progression and survival in advanced PC.
| Original language | English |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 39-42 |
| Number of pages | 4 |
| Journal | Onkologie |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue number | 1-2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Feb 2007 |
| Externally published | Yes |
Keywords
- Carbohydrate antigen 19-9
- Gemcitabine
- Pancreatic cancer
- Prognostic factor
