Elderly patients with pancreatic cancer.

Pancreatic cancer marked significant increase of incidence during the last decades in the elderly population. Despite the certain increase of incidence there are no international guidelines for elderly patients who are suffering from pancreatic cancer. During the ASCO Annual Meeting 2014, two abstracts focusing on elderly patients suffering from different histological types of pancreatic cancer were presented. The first retrospective study (Abstract #4119) showed the benefit of the systemic treatment on overall survival for elderly patients with stage IV pancreatic adenocarcinoma. The second retrospective study (Abstract #4112) demonstrates the positive effect of somatostatin analogue (octreotide-LAR) treatment on overall survival for elderly patients with neuroendocrine pancreatic carcinoma.

Updates in management of ampullary carcinomas.

Ampullary carcinomas are rare malignancies representing less than 1% of all gastrointestinal cancers. Given the low incidence rate, there is scarcity of data regarding the survival benefit of the treatment options available. In the 2014 ASCO Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium there were two abstracts that discussed the role of pancreaticoduodenectomy and adjuvant radiation therapy in ampullary carcinoma. The first study (Abstract #366) demonstrated a decline in morbidity and mortality over time for pancreaticoduodenectomy making it a reasonable option for successful treatment of ampullary carcinoma. The second study (Abstract #282) showed that adjuvant radiation therapy in patients with T2 tumors had improved median survival times compared to patients that did not receive radiation therapy.