Letter to the Editor
Copyright ©The Author(s) 2022. Published by Baishideng Publishing Group Inc. All rights reserved.
World J Clin Oncol. May 24, 2022; 13(5): 417-422
Published online May 24, 2022. doi: 10.5306/wjco.v13.i5.417
How to improve metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma patients’ selection: Between clinical trials and the real-world
Andrea Pretta, Dario Spanu, Stefano Mariani, Nicole Liscia, Pina Ziranu, Valeria Pusceddu, Marco Puzzoni, Elena Massa, Mario Scartozzi, Eleonora Lai
Andrea Pretta, Dario Spanu, Stefano Mariani, Pina Ziranu, Valeria Pusceddu, Marco Puzzoni, Elena Massa, Mario Scartozzi, Eleonora Lai, Medical Oncology Unit, University Hospital and University of Cagliari, Monserrato 09042, Cagliari, Italy
Nicole Liscia, Department of Oncology, IRCCS San Raffaele Scientific Institute Hospital, Vita-Salute San Raffaele University, Milano 20121, Italy
Author contributions: All authors wrote and edited the manuscript.
Conflict-of-interest statement: Prof. Scartozzi reports associations with Amgen, Sanofi, MERCK SHARP DOHME, Eisai, Merck, and Bayer, outside the submitted work.
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Mario Scartozzi, MD, Chairman, Full Professor, Medical Oncology Unit, University Hospital and University of Cagliari, SS 554, bivio per Sestu, km 4,500, Monserrato 09042, Cagliari, Italy. marioscartozzi@gmail.com
Received: January 5, 2022
Peer-review started: January 5, 2022
First decision: February 15, 2022
Revised: April 1, 2022
Accepted: May 5, 2022
Article in press: May 5, 2022
Published online: May 24, 2022
Core Tip

Core Tip: The present letter is intended to contribute to the collection of data on pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) treatments in second-line settings through our experience with the promising data of efficacy and safety of a small group of study patients treated with second-line liposomal irinotecan (nal-IRI) plus 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin. We also focused on highlighting the subgroups of PDAC patients who might benefit from target treatments, such as a small proportion of mutated BRCAs, and to identify comorbidities or characteristics that impact the prognosis of PDAC patients through our retrospective analysis that demonstrate a correlation between type II diabetes mellitus and improved overall survival.