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This article summarizes the expert discussion on the management of pancreatic cancer, which took place during the 8th World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancer in June 2006 in Barcelona. A multidisciplinary approach to a patient with pancreatic cancer is essential, in order to guarantee an optimal staging, surgery, selection of the appropriate (neo-)adjuvant strategy and chemotherapeutic choice management. Moreover, optimal symptomatic management requires a dedicated team of health care professionals. Quality control of surgery and pathology is especially important in this disease with a high locoregional failure rate. There is now solid evidence in favour of chemotherapy in both the adjuvant and palliative setting, and gemcitabine combined with erlotinib, capecitabine or platinum compounds seems to be slightly more active than gemcitabine alone in advanced pancreatic cancer. There is a place for chemoradiotherapy in selected patients with locally advanced disease, while the role in the adjuvant setting remains controversial. Those involved in the care for patients with pancreatic cancer should be encouraged to participate in well-designed clinical trials, in order to increase the evidence-based knowledge and to make further progress.

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Although irinotecan 350 mg m À2 is a standard option for relapsed/refractory advanced colorectal cancer, there is some evidence that suggests that a higher dose may be more effective, with acceptable tolerability, following 5-fluorouracil (5-FU). This study assessed the optimal dosing strategy for irinotecan, along with treatment efficacy and safety. A total of 164 patients with metastatic colorectal cancer progressing after failure on 5-FU or raltitrexed received either 350 mg m À2 irinotecan (Group A; n ¼ 36) or 250, 350 or 500 mg m À2 , according to individual patient tolerance (Group B; n ¼ 62) or based on risk factor optimisation (Group C; n ¼ 66). There were no complete responses. There was a trend towards a higher overall response rate in Group B (13%) than in Groups A (8%) and C (9%). Tumour control growth rate was high in all three groups: 58% in group A, 60% in Group B and 50% in Group C. A total of 34% of patients in Group B and 9% in Group C were able to receive a dose of 500 mg m À2 . Median duration of response and time to progression were significantly longer in Groups A and B compared with Group C. No significant between-group differences for any adverse events were seen, although there was a small trend towards better tolerability in Group B. Individual dose escalation based on patient tolerance may allow more patients to receive a higher irinotecan dose without causing additional toxicity and can be an appropriate patient management strategy. 1999). Median overall survival rates of up to 10 months are achievable when irinotecan is used in relapsed/refractory colorectal cancer (Shimada et al, 1993; Rothenberg et al, 1996 Rothenberg et al, , 1999Pitot et al, 1997;Rougier et al, 1997;Van Cutsem et al, 1999). Two European phase III trials investigating the efficacy and safety of irinotecan, following 5-FU failure in advanced colorectal cancer, have demonstrated significant improvements in survival compared with best supportive care and 5-FU (Cunningham et al, 1998;Rougier et al, 1998). The main adverse events accompanying treatment with irinotecan in these trials were diarrhoea, neutropenia, fatigue, nausea and vomiting.Although 350 mg m À2 as an intravenous infusion every 3 weeks is the standard recommended dosage of irinotecan, pharmacokinetic parameters of irinotecan-lactone and the active metabolite SN-38-lactone vary between individuals (Xie et al, 2002). This may be attributed to differences in the levels of the enzymes that metabolise irinotecan, notably carboxylesterase for SN-38. Furthermore, the variable interindividual patient exposure to SN-38 has been identified as an important determinant of toxicity .At the same time, there is convincing evidence of a doseresponse relationship, and therefore a rationale for increasing doses when possible. In a phase I trial by Abigerges et al (1995), there were two recommended doses: 350 mg m À2 without highdose loperamide and 600 mg m À2 with high-dose loperamide. With the exception of one responder treated at 260 mg m À2 , all objective responses...