Gemcitabine with Capecitabine effective against pancreatic cancer

Combination of two chemotherapy drugs has found to be effective in treating patients with pancreatic cancer compared to use of single drug. A combination of Gemcitabine and Capecitabine has been found to decrease the number of deaths due to pancreatic cancer. Early and effective to pancreatic cancer is very important as Pancreatic cancer is one of the most serious of all cancers. It develops when malignant cells form in tissues of your pancreas. Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of all cancer deaths. That's because pancreatic cancer spreads rapidly and is seldom detected in its early stages.

This clinical trial, which is called the GEMCAP trial, was conducted in England between May 2003 and January 2005 involving 533 patients with, advanced pancreatic cancer. The patients were given either Gemcitabine (Gemzar) alone or Gemcitabine plus capecitabine (Xeloda) and the results was found that patients receiving a combination of both the drugs had increased survival rates of 6 months compared to Gemcitabine group alone. The one-year survival rates for Gemcitabine and capecitabine was 26% compared to only 19% with Gemcitabine alone.

Experts View:

Professor David Cunningham, Institute of Cancer Research at the Royal Marsden Hospital London and lead investigator of the trial said,