Treatments for recurrent pancreatic cancer
Recurrent pancreatic cancer means that the cancer has come back after it has been treated. The following are treatment options for recurrent pancreatic cancer. The treatment for recurrent cancer depends on where the cancer comes back and what treatments were used before. Your healthcare team will suggest treatments based on your needs and work with you to develop a treatment plan.
Chemotherapy
Chemotherapy is usually offered for recurrent pancreatic cancer. The type of chemotherapy used will depend on the chemotherapy drugs you had to treat the original tumour.
Chemotherapy drugs and drug combinations used to treat recurrent pancreatic cancer are:
- gemcitabine (Gemzar)
- FOLFIRINOX – folinic acid (leucovorin), 5-fluorouracil (Adrucil, 5-FU), irinotecan (Camptosar) and oxaliplatin (Eloxatin)
- gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel (Abraxane)
- 5-fluorouracil and folinic acid, or capecitabine, with or without oxaliplatin
- nanoliposomal irinotecan (Onivyde) with 5-fluorouracil and folinic acid
Surgery
You may be offered surgery to relieve symptoms of recurrent pancreatic cancer (called palliative surgery).
Stent placement is one of the most common ways to relieve a blockage caused by a pancreatic tumour. A stent is a thin, hollow tube that is placed into the duct to keep it open.
Surgical bypass may be used in some cases. There are different types of surgical bypass used depending on the location of the blockage.
Radiation therapy
You may be offered radiation therapy to control pain from recurrent pancreatic cancer (called palliative therapy).
If you can’t have or don’t want cancer treatment
You may want to consider a type of care to make you feel better without treating the cancer itself. This may be because the cancer treatments don’t work anymore, they’re not likely to improve your condition or they may cause side effects that are hard to cope with. There may also be other reasons why you can’t have or don’t want cancer treatment.
Talk to your healthcare team. They can help you choose care and treatment for advanced cancer.
Clinical trials
Some clinical trials in Canada are open to people with pancreatic cancer. Clinical trials look at new ways to prevent, find and treat cancer. Find out more about clinical trials.