Study Evaluates Use of Radiation Therapy in Pancreatic Cancer

Michael Chuong, MD, medical director of proton therapy and photon therapy, radiation, Baptist Health South Florida, discusses the study design of a trial evaluating radiation therapy in patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer.

The use of radiation therapy in this space is not a standard. However, a non-ablative dose can show promising efficacy with little adverse events.

According to Chuong, ablative radiation therapy in 5 fractions guided by MRIdian Linac online adaptive replanning or 15-25 fractions delivered with CT guidance can be viable options for this patient population.

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0:08 | The study design is essentially a single-arm phase 2 trial in which all patients would have initially received chemotherapy before enrollment. Then if there was no evidence of distant progression, they would be considered for study participation.

0:24 | In the trial, all patients received 5 fractions or essentially 5 days of radiation therapy delivered on the meridian device, with the intent being to deliver an ablative, or very high dose to the tumor. This is a dose that is not routine or standard on regular radiation machines, just simply because the safety of that would be where it would not be safe to do.