Patients with Advanced Pancreatic Cancer Treated with Mistletoe and Hyperthermia in Addition to Palliative Chemotherapy: A Retrospective Single-Center Analysis

Overview

Journal Cancers (Basel)

Publisher MDPI

Specialty Oncology

Date 2023 Oct 28

PMID 37894296

Authors

Anna Lena Hohneck

Largsi Sadikaj

Lara Heinemann

Maik Schroeder

Hartmut Riess

Annette Gerhards

Iris Burkholder

Stefan Heckel-Reusser

Julia Gottfried

Ralf-Dieter Hofheinz

Affiliations

Soon will be listed here.

Abstract

This retrospective analysis investigated the influence of integrative therapies in addition to palliative chemotherapy in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, treated at a single institution specialized in integrative oncology between January 2015 and December 2019. In total, 206 consecutive patients were included in the study, whereof 142 patients (68.9%) received palliative chemotherapy (gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel 33.8%; FOLFIRINOX 35.9%; gemcitabine 30.3%) while the remainder were treated with best supportive and integrative care. Integrative therapies were used in 117 of 142 patients (82.4%) in addition to conventional chemotherapy, whereby mistletoe was used in 117 patients (82.4%) and hyperthermia in 74 patients (52.1%). A total of 107/142 patients (86.3%) died during the observation period, whereby survival times differed significantly depending on the additional use of integrative mistletoe or hyperthermia: chemotherapy alone 8.6 months (95% CI 4.7-15.4), chemotherapy and only mistletoe therapy 11.2 months (95% CI 7.1-14.2), or a combination of chemotherapy with mistletoe and hyperthermia 18.9 months (95% CI 15.2-24.5). While the survival times observed for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer receiving chemotherapy alone are consistent with pivotal phase-III studies and German registry data, we found significantly improved survival using additional mistletoe and/or hyperthermia.

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