Abstract
Purpose: Despite improved diagnostic and therapeutic facilities median survival in pancreatic cancer is still unsatisfactory Here we retrospectively analyzed the outcome of immunotherapy in the additional palliative treatment of pancreatic cancer with long antigen exposition dendritic cell therapy (LANEX-DC®) in 200 patients who were treated at our institution (intent-to- treat-analysis).
Patients: Data were available of 200 patients.The mean interval between first diagnosis and start of treatment was 1,5 months. 148 patients received one cycle of dendritic cell therapy, 52 patients received 2 or more cycles of dendritic cell therapy.
Results: Therapy was well tolerated and no serious side effects were observed. The survival rate after 6 months was 70,9 % and afters 9 month 51,0%. The median survival time according to Kaplan- Meier regression analysis was 9,1 months. Median survival was significantly higher in the group of patients who started immunotherapy within 1,5 months following diagnosis (7,9 months versus11,8 months, p=0,009). Patients with two or more cycles of dendritic cell therapy lived significantly longer than patients with just one cycle (17,5 months versus 7,4 months, p=0,001). Interestingly younger patients < 65 years of age lived significantly longer as patients >= 65 years of age (p = 0,004).
Conclusion: We were able to demonstrate in a large retrospective cohort analysis that additional treatment with dendritic cells is highly effective and extends the median survival times up to 17,5 months in case of regular repetition of dendritic cell therapy. Furthermore, we were able to demonstrate that median survival can be increased by early beginning dendritic cell therapy.