Best supportive care compared with chemotherapy for unresectable gall bladder cancer: A randomized controlled study

Abstract

Purpose: We designed this study to evaluate efficacy of modified gemcitabine and oxaliplatin (mGEMOX) over best supportive care (BSC) or fluorouracil (FU) and folinic acid (FA) in unresectable gall bladder cancer (GBC). Patients and Methods: Patients with unresectable GBC were enrolled for single center randomized study. Arm A, BSC; arm B, FU 425 mg/m2 and FA 20 mg/m2 intravenous (IV) bolus weekly for 30 weeks (FUFA); arm C, gemcitabine 900 mg/m2 and oxaliplatin 80 mg/m2 IV infusion on days 1 and 8 every 3 weeks for maximum of six cycles. Eighty-one patients were randomly assigned, arms A (n = 27), B (n = 28), and C (n = 26). Results: Complete response plus partial response in the three groups was 0 (0%), four (14.3%), and eight (30.8%) respectively (P < .001). Two patients in the mGEMOX arm and one patient in the FUFA arm underwent curative resection after chemotherapy. One patient in the mGEMOX arm had complete pathologic response. Median overall survival (OS) was 4.5, 4.6, and 9.5 months for the BSC, FUFA, and mGEMOX arms (P = .039), respectively. Progression-free survival (PFS) was 2.8, 3.5, and 8.5 months for the three groups (P