Study of Induction Chemotherapy Followed by Radiochemotherapy in Locally Advanced Pancreatic Cancer

Radiotherapy target volumes are established by CT scan and PET-CT scan. Radiotherapy is delivered with a total dose of 54-59 Gy with fractionation of 1.8 Gy daily for 5 days a week. The Planning Target Volume (PTV) is defined by CTV with a safety margin of 1cm in all directions to include organ motion and set-up errors. Organs at risk for radiation-induced side effects are contoured on the dose planning CT and dose volume histograms (DVH) are calculated. All treatments are delivered with a 15-MV linear accelerator (Varian Medical System) with a multifield isocentric technique using a multileaf collimator. A quality-control protocol are applied for all patients with periodical digital portal images to evaluate the precision of the set-up.

The induction phase of the treatment plan is designed to administer gemcitabine 1000 mg/mq and oxaliplatin 100 mg/mq every 14 days for four doses. Chemotherapy concurrent to conformal radiation therapy is gemcitabine at the dose of 600 mg/mq weekly.