FOLFIRINOX for Unresectable Locally Advanced and Borderline Resectable Pancreatic Cancer

FOLFIRINOX regimen was recently presented at an international oncology meeting and represents a new standard in the treatment of metastatic pancreatic cancer for selected patients. With improved overall survival (OS) and response rates (RR) in the metastatic setting, we hypothesize that in patients with less tumor burden, this regimen will be safe and well tolerated, improve OS, progression free survival (PFS), and RR, and improve resectability rates, as compared to historical data from standard single agent gemcitabine therapy for unresectable locally advanced (ULA) patients and standard radiation with concurrent 5 fluorouracil (5FU) chemotherapy for borderline resectable (BR) patients. While both ULA and BR patients will be eligible for the present study, our primary objective concerns ULA patients, and we plan to enroll 45 patients in this group. Patients meeting eligibility criteria will be consented and treated with FOLFIRINOX every 2 weeks (1 cycle = 4 weeks = 2 treatments). Patients will undergo repeat imaging (CT or MRI) every 2 cycles and reassessed for resectability of the tumor. All patients that are not able to undergo surgical resection, due to insufficient down-staging or patient preference, will continue on protocol-based therapy until disease progression, unacceptable toxicity, study withdrawal, or death.