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Strong evidence exists for the use of adjuvant chemotherapy following surgical resection in pancreatic cancer, whereas the role of adjuvant chemoradiotherapy remains controversial. The optimal time to initiate adjuvant therapy has yet to be elucidated, but is usually started 2-10 weeks following resection. First line adjuvant chemotherapy is gemcitabine, as this drug has demonstrated the better efficacy in studies. Other chemotherapeutic agents and gemcitabine in combination with biologic agents are under investigation. Furthermore, predicting response to gemcitabine based chemotherapy and other adjuvant therapies will be invaluable in guiding the practitioner to choose the most appropriate adjuvant treatment. Once adjuvant therapy has been started, accurately quantifying response to therapy is also important. The adjuvant regimen may be appropriately modified if response is inadequate. This review is an update from the 2011 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting regarding recent developments in the adjuvant treatment of pancreatic cancer with regards to choice of adjuvant regimen, timing of adjuvant therapy, predicting response to therapy and measuring response to adjuvant therapy. We will present the findings from Abstracts #4039, #4042, #e14519, #4118, and #4024. In conclusion, multiple adjuvant therapeutic regimens are associated with incremental improvements in the management of pancreatic cancer. The timing of initiation of adjuvant therapy appears to be important in outcomes. Research is ongoing into markers that can predict response to adjuvant therapy.

Ampullary cancer is an uncommon tumor and tends to have a better prognosis than pancreatic cancer. However, one half of patients will die from recurrent disease suggesting the need for effective adjuvant therapy. Currently, there is lack of randomized trials to guide the use of adjuvant therapy in ampullary cancer. At the 2011 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting, the largest trial (Abstract #4006) evaluating adjuvant treatment of ampullary cancer was presented.

Pancreatic cancer represents the 4th leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States. Surgical resection remains the only potential curative approach. Current standard adjuvant therapy is gemcitabine monotherapy for 6 months. This year several trials investigated other combinations with or without molecular target agents, with or without concurrent radiation attempting to optimize adjuvant therapy. Several abstracts presented at the 2010 American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting are highlighted here and will be further discussed in this review article. Abstracts #4012, #4059, and TPS226 added immunotherapy to adjuvant treatment. Abstract #4034 demonstrated lack of efficacy by adding either cetuximab or bevacizumab to known adjuvant therapies. Abstract e14625 combined S-1 to gemcitabine and abstract #4113 demonstrated a positive correlation between symptoms and CA 19-9 levels with the length of survival.