A novel schedule of erlotinib/capecitabine (7/7) as salvage therapy in previously treated advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma: a case series

Background: The objective of this study was to report a case series on the efficacy and safety of capecitabine 7/7 schedule combined with erlotinib (CAP-ERL) in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer (APC) who have failed prior therapies. Methods: We retrospectively evaluated 13 patients with locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer previously treated with gemcitabine or oxaliplatin–irinotecan-based first-line regimens. Treatment consisted of capecitabine (Xeloda) at a flat dose of 1000 mg orally twice daily on days 1–7 out of 14 days (7/7 schedule) and erlotinib (Tarceva) 100 mg orally once daily until unacceptable toxicity or disease progression. Tumor assessments were repeated every two cycles (8 weeks) and serum tumor markers were measured every 4 weeks. Results: All patients (median age: 63 years; 7 female/3 male) had various previous lines of treatments of chemotherapies. Median number of cycles with CAP-ERL was 4 (range 2–12). The overall response rate was 20%. CA19-9 was reduced more than 25% in 40% patients. The median overall survival and progression-free survival from the start of CAP-ERL were 4.5 months (range 3–7.5) and 2 months (range 1.5–4), respectively. The most common grade 3 toxicities included hand–foot syndrome, nausea, vomiting, diarrhea, rash, and fatigue. Conclusions: Our result suggests that the combination of a fixed low dose of CAP-ERL 7/7 schedule was tolerated with manageable toxicity and showed encouraging activity as salvage treatment in patients with refractory APC with ECOG performance status 0–2. Further prospective studies are warranted to evaluate this combination