(14), and Conio et al. (15), however, Han et al. (12) reported 312 days median overall survival in stent alone patients. The present

study shows survival benefits for addition of radiotherapy to stent patients of locally advanced disease, its median overall survival time was 237d days, Han et al. (12)reported 499 days, while Song et al. (16) reported Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical 161 days, this advantage may be due to tumor local control by radiotherapy. Yu et al. in a their trail of offering radiotherapy 4-7 days after stent replacement has reported mean survival of 510 days but this was a very small series (17). In the future, it can be expected that removable stents will be used as a bridge to surgery or radiotherapy to maintain luminal patency during neoadjuvant treatment.

However it is difficult to assess the survival http://www.selleckchem.com/products/otx015.html benefit in these approaches for each treatment modalities as some patients underwent Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical surgery or radical chemoradiotherapy thereafter (18,19). It is very likely that the survival benefit in group III were due to selection bias as this study was not intended to be a randomized trial. Also patients who offered Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical stent as first step were those who are having Grade III or more dysphgaia and their survival is expected to be limited. The role of combined EBRT and stent as opposed to either alone is a relevant area of investigation and a randomized phase III study of SEMS +/- EBRT is due to open shortly in the UK (ROCS). In conclusion, combinations of stent and RT may provide survival benefit in patients with malignant dysphagia. A randomized clinical trial Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical is recommended. Acknowledgements Disclosure: The authors declare no conflict of interest.
Improving outcomes in management of pancreatic cancer remains a challenge, owing to advancement of the disease at presentation. Only 15-20% patients are diagnosed at a resectable or borderline resectable Inhibitors,research,lifescience,medical stage (1). During the past 1-2 decades, adjuvant chemotherapy with surgery first approach did not bring

a significant survival benefit (2-4). Recent studies have shown that neoadjuvant chemoradiation therapy results in Cediranib (AZD2171) better post surgical outcomes for potentially resectable pancreatic cancer (5-7). This has led to change in management strategy in many pancreatic cancer centers from initial surgery to now neoadjuvant therapy followed by surgery, especially in borderline resectable pancreatic cancer. In this approach, preoperative therapy lasts approximately 3 months and is followed by a 1-month recovery period before surgery. Therefore, patients who have biliary obstruction due to cancer in the head of the pancreas need drainage while receiving the treatment and waiting to undergo surgery. Effective biliary drainage is essential to prevent liver toxicity due to chemotherapeutic agents.