The effect of octreotide treatment on patients with pancreatic cancer who undergo endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) with pancreatic duct stent placement.

BACKGROUND/AIMS: To investigate the effect of octreotide treatment on patients with pancreatic cancer who undergo endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography (ERCP) with pancreatic duct stent placement for malignant biliary obstruction.

METHODOLOGY: Patients (n=99) hospitalized from Jan 2006 to Dec 2011 were included in this study. All the patients were diagnosed with pancreatic cancer (obstructive jaundice). The patients were randomly divided into the octreotide treated group and the control group. Both groups underwent ERCP with pancreatic duct stent placement for malignant biliary obstruction. The patients' quality of life was evaluated by the symptoms of nausea, vomiting, abdominal pain, diarrhea and anorexia. Overall quality of life, liver function and survival time were compared between these two groups.

RESULTS

Quality of life and liver function improved more in the octreotide group than the control group. In addition, the survival time was significantly longer in the octreotide group than in the control group (12.3 months vs. 7.3 months) (p<0.05).

CONCLUSIONS

Octreotide therapy is beneficial in patients with pancreatic cancer who undergo ERCP with pancreatic duct stent placement for malignant biliary obstruction.