Predictors of the therapeutic effect of Nab-paclitaxel plus gemcitabine therapy for patients with recurrent pancreatic cancer after pancreatectomy

Abstract Background/Aim Nab -paclitaxel plus gemcitabine (GnP) is one of the standard chemotherapeutic schemes of treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer (PC). The current study has the aim to outline the predictors of therapeutic effect of GnP in the cases with recurrent PC after pancreatectomy. Patients and Methods We retrospectively evaluated the clinicopathological characteristics of patients with recurrent PC after pancreatectomy who received GnP at our institution from January 2016 to February 2021. We examined various inflammatory markers [neutrophil lymphocyte ratio (NLR), lymphocyte monocyte ratio (LMR), platelet lymphocyte ratio (PLR), C-reactive protein albumin ratio (CAR)] and a nutritional marker [ prognostic nutritional index (PNI) ] in addition to common clinicopathological characteristics as possible predictors of the chemotherapeutic effects of GnP. Results Univariate analysis identified PLR, CAR, and histological differentiation as significant predictors of better chemotherapeutic effects. Meanwhile, multivariate analysis identified only histological differentiation as an independent predictor of better chemotherapeutic effects. Accordingly, patients with well-differentiated adenocarcinoma showed better overall survival after recurrence than those with other histological types. Conclusion Histological differentiation can be a useful predictor of the therapeutic effects of GnP in the clinical cases of recurrent PC after pancreatectomy.