Five years after surgery, one quarter of patients treated with mFOLFIRINOX were free of cancer Tuesday, September 28, 2021 At the recent European Society For Medical Oncology (ESMO 21) Congress held September 16 -21, Dr. Thierry Conroy presented the updated results of the Unicancer PRODIGE 24/CCTG PA6 trial. The five-year data from the trial has confirmed the significant benefits of the use of mFOLFIRINOX chemotherapy in all outcomes. This practice-changing research confirmed the significant improvement in the survival of pancreatic cancer patients treated with the mFOLFIRINOX chemotherapy regimen compared to the then standard treatment with gemcitabine. By five years after surgery, over one quarter of patients treated with mFOLFIRINOX were free of cancer compared to less than one out of five of those treated with gemcitabine. In addition, the survival of patients was significantly improved; almost half of patients who received mFOLFIRINOX were alive five years after the study versus less than one third who received gemcitabine. "The long-term results of this trial reinforce the benefits to these patients of receiving mFOLFIRINOX after surgery," says CCTG Senior Investigator, Chirs O'Callaghan. "We will carry on the important research optimizing the use of chemotherapy with a clinical trial testing whether FOLFIRINOX chemotherapy delivered before surgical removal of the tumour can provide further, additional benefit for these patients." mFOLFIRINOX is the now adjuvant standard of care for patients with resected pancreatic adenocarcinoma who are in good general health. The original results were published in the New England Journal of Medicine and presented at the 2018 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting in Chicago. About the trial From April 2012 to October 2016, 77 hospitals in France and Canada enrolled 493 post-operative pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patients in the PRODIGE 24 / CCTG PA.6 study. This was achieved through the collaboration of three French research groups organized under the umbrella of the PRODIGE Intergroup: Unicancer Gastrointestinal (UCGI), la Fédération Francophone de Cancérologie Digestive (FFCD) and the Groupe Coopérateur Multidisciplinaire en Oncologie (GERCOR), and the Canadian Cancer Trials Group (CCTG) The international study was coordinated by Prof. Thierry Conroy (Institut de Cancérologie de Lorraine, Nancy) in collaboration with Prof. Jean-Baptiste Bachet (Hôpital La Pitié-Salpêtrière, AP-HP, Paris), and Prof. Patrick Rat (CHU de Dijon) in France, and by Dr. Jim Biagi (Kingston Health Sciences Centre, Kingston) and Dr. Alice Wei (University Health Network, Toronto) in Canada. This important research was funded by the French Ministry of Health and The French league against cancer with additional support from 7 Days in May Foundation and the Canadian Cancer Society.
