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Are physical performance and frailty assessments useful in targeting and improving access to adjuvant therapy in patients undergoing resection for pancreatic cancer?

Powell-Brett, S
Hodson, J
Pande, R
Mann, S
Freer, Alice
Wyrko, Zoe
Hughes, Clare
Isaac, J
Sutcliffe, R P
Roberts, K
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2023-02-14
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Background: Many patients fail to receive adjuvant chemotherapy following pancreatic cancer surgery. This study implemented a multimodal, multidisciplinary approach to improving recovery after pancreatoduodenectomy (the 'Fast Recovery' programme) and measured its impact on adjuvant chemotherapy uptake and nutritional decline. The predictive accuracies of a bundle of frailty and physical performance assessments, with respect to the recipient of adjuvant chemotherapy, were also evaluated. Results: The N = 44 patients treated after the introduction of the 'Fast Recovery' programme were not found to have a significantly higher adjuvant chemotherapy uptake than the N = 409 treated before the pathway change (80.5 vs. 74.3%, p = 0.452), but did have a significantly lower average weight loss at six weeks post-operatively (mean: 4.3 vs. 6.9 kg, p = 0.013). Of the pre-operative frailty and physical performance assessments tested, the 6-min walk test was found to be the strongest predictor of the receipt of adjuvant chemotherapy (area under the ROC curve: 0.91, p = 0.001); all patients achieving distances ≥ 360 m went on to receive adjuvant chemotherapy, compared to 33% of those walking < 360 m. Conclusions: The multimodal 'Fast Recovery' programme was not found to significantly improve access to adjuvant chemotherapy, but did appear to have benefits in reducing nutritional decline. Pre-operative assessments were found to be useful in identifying patients at risk of non-receipt of adjuvant therapies, with markers of physical performance appearing to be the best predictors. As such, these markers could be useful in targeting pre- and post-habilitation measures, such as physiotherapy and improved dietetic support.
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Powell-Brett S, Hodson J, Pande R, Mann S, Freer A, Wyrko Z, Hughes C, Isaac J, Sutcliffe RP, Roberts K. Are physical performance and frailty assessments useful in targeting and improving access to adjuvant therapy in patients undergoing resection for pancreatic cancer? Langenbecks Arch Surg. 2023 Feb 14;408(1):88. doi: 10.1007/s00423-023-02828-1
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