Impact of the Coronavirus Disease-2019 Pandemic on Pancreaticobiliary Disease Detection and Treatment

The emergency declaration (ED) associated with the coronavirus disease-2019 (COVID-19) pandemic in Japan had a major effect on the management of gastrointestinal endoscopy. We retrospectively compared the number of pancreaticobiliary endoscopies and newly diagnosed pancreaticobiliary cancers before (1 April 2018 to 6 April 2020), during (7 April to 25 May 2020), and after the ED (26 May to 31 July). Multiple comparisons of the three groups were performed with respect to the presence or absence of symptoms and clinical disease stage. There were no significant differences among the three groups (Before/During/After the ED) in the mean number of diagnoses of pancreatic cancer and biliary cancer per month in each period (8.0/7.5/7.5 cases, p = 0.5, and 4.0/3.5/3.0 cases, p = 0.9, respectively). There were no significant differences among the three groups in the number of pancreaticobiliary endoscopies (EUS: endoscopic ultrasonography/ERCP: endoscopic retrograde cholangiopancreatography) per month (67.8/62.5/69.0 cases, p = 0.7 and 89.8/51.5/86.0 cases, p = 0.06, respectively), whereas the number of EUS cases decreased by 42.7% between before and during the ED. There were no significant differences among the three groups in the presence or absence of symptoms at diagnosis or clinical disease stage. There was no significant reduction in the newly diagnosed pancreaticobiliary cancer, even during the ED. The number of ERCP cases was not significantly reduced as a result of urgent procedures, but the number of EUS cases was significantly reduced.

Association between time to stent dysfunction and the anti-tumour effect of systemic chemotherapy following stent placement in patients with pancreaticobiliary cancers and malignant gastric outlet obstruction: a retrospective cohort study

Background Malignant gastric outlet obstruction (MGOO) occasionally occurs due to pancreaticobiliary cancer. Endoscopic duodenal stenting (DS) is a common treatment for MGOO. However, it has been reported that DS does not have sufficient patency time for it to be used in patients who have a potentially increased lifespan. Nowadays, systemic chemotherapy for pancreaticobiliary cancer has developed, and its anti-tumour effect would make time to stent dysfunction longer. Therefore, we retrospectively evaluated the association between objective response to systemic chemotherapy, followed by DS and time to stent dysfunction in patients with advanced pancreaticobiliary cancer. Methods This retrospective study included 109 patients with advanced pancreaticobiliary cancer who received systemic chemotherapy after DS. Patients who showed complete or partial response were defined as responders. The rest were defined as non-responders. Time to stent dysfunction was compared between responders and non-responders using the landmark analysis at 2 months after DS. Death without recurrence of MGOO was considered as a competing risk for time to stent dysfunction. Results Combination and monotherapy regimens were adopted for 46 and 63 patients, respectively. Median progression-free survival and overall survival were 3.2 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.4–4.0) and 6.0 months (95% CI, 4.6–7.3). Objective response was observed in 21 patients (19.3%). Median time to stent dysfunction was 12.5 months (95% CI, 8.4–16.5) in the entire cohort. In 89 patients, responders had a lower cumulative incidence of stent dysfunction than non-responders: 9.5 and 19.1% at 6 months, and 19.0 and 27.9% at 1-year, respectively. There was difference of time to stent dysfunction between responders and non-responders among patients who received combination regimen as the first-line treatment with p-value of 0.009: cumulative incidence was 0 and 42.9% at 6 months, and 9.3 and 57.1% at 1-year, respectively. Conclusions Longer time to stent dysfunction is expected when systemic chemotherapy following DS suppresses tumour progression; DS is slated to be a standard treatment for MGOO even in patients with pancreaticobiliary cancer and a long lifespan.

Association Between Time to Stent Dysfunction and the Anti-Tumour Effect of Systemic Chemotherapy Following Stent Placement in Patients With Pancreaticobiliary Cancers and Malignant Gastric Outlet Obstruction: A Retrospective Cohort Study

Background: Malignant gastric outlet obstruction (mGOO) occasionally occurs due to pancreaticobiliary cancer. Endoscopic duodenal stenting (DS) is a common treatment for MGOO. However, it has been reported that DS does not have a sufficient time to stent dysfunction for it to be used in patients who have a greater potential lifespan. Nowadays, systemic chemotherapy for pancreaticobiliary cancer has developed, and its anti-tumour effect would make time to stent dysfunction longer. We therefore retrospectively evaluated the association between objective response to systemic chemotherapy followed by DS and time to stent dysfunction in patients with advanced pancreaticobiliary cancer. Methods: This retrospective study included 109 patients with advanced pancreaticobiliary cancer who received systemic chemotherapy after DS. Patients who showed complete or partial response were defined as responders. The rest were defined as non-responders. Time to stent dysfunction was compared between responders and non-responders using the landmark analysis, at 2 months after DS. Death without recurrence of MGOO was considered as a censored case for time to stent dysfunction. Results: The combination and monotherapy regimens were adopted for 41 and 68 patients, respectively. Median progression-free survival and overall survival were 3.2 4 months (95% confidence interval [CI], 2.4-4.0) and 6.0 months (95% CI, 4.6-7.3). Objective response was observed in 21 patients (19.3%). Patients who received combination regimens had longer progression-free survival and higher response rate than those with monotherapy regimens; progression-free survival was 5.1 months (95% CI, 3.1-7.0) and 2.6 months (95% CI, 1.6-3.5) with a p-value of <0.001, and response rate was 39.0% and 7.4% with a p-value <0.001, respectively. Median time to stent dysfunction was 12.5 months (95% CI, 8.4-16.5) in the entire cohort. In 89 patients, responders had longer time to stent dysfunction than non-responders: 17.4 months (95% CI, 17.3-17.5) and 7.1 months (95% CI, 1.6-12.5) with a p-value of 0.031. Conclusion: Longer time to stent dysfunction is expected when systemic chemotherapy following DS suppresses tumour progression. DS is slated to be a standard treatment for MGOO, even in patients with pancreaticobiliary cancer and a long lifespan.