[Clinical benefit of full-dose gemcitabine for advanced pancreatic cancer refractory to S-1+gemcitabine].

A 62-year-old man with pancreatic body cancer underwent distal pancreatectomy without adjuvant gemcitabine(GEM). Because the pancreatic cancer recurred 4 months after surgery, however, he was treated with combination chemotherapy(S- 1+GEM at 750mg/m2). Unfortunately, this combination regimen was ineffective; therefore S-1 was withdrawn and full-dose GEM was administered as second-line treatment. One year of full-dose GEM showed a significant clinical benefit, completely eliminating multiple pulmonary metastases even after a 3-month suspension of chemotherapy. Our findings suggest that GEM monotherapy is a useful mainstream treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer.