Phase I study of dose‐escalated stereotactic body radiation therapy for locally advanced pancreatic head cancers: Initial clinical results

Abstract

Pancreatic cancer (PC) is the seventh leading cause of cancer mortality among both genders from Cancer Statistics 2019. Approximately 80% of patients developed with metastatic or locally advanced disease at the time of diagnosis. [1][2][3] The median survival for patients with unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer (LAPC) who receive chemoradiotherapy was 11-15 months. [4][5][6] However, the role of radiation for LAPC was controversial, chemoradiation therapy is still considered as one of the effective treatment options for LAPC in NCCN guidelines. 7 The pancreas is anatomically close to the stomach and duodenum. With the advancement in radiotherapy, compared with conventional fractionated radiotherapy, SBRT has dramatically improved the survival benefits by