CASE REPORT article
Front. Oncol.
Sec. Gastrointestinal Cancers: Hepato Pancreatic Biliary Cancers
Volume 15 - 2025 | doi: 10.3389/fonc.2025.1582673
This article is part of the Research TopicManagement of Localized Pancreatic CancerView all articles
Unexpected Complete Remission After Recurrence in Pancreatic Cancer: A Case Report on Comprehensive Multimodal Therapy
Provisionally accepted
- 1Guangdong Provincial People's Hospital, Guangzhou, China
- 2Sun Yat-sen Memorial Hospital, Guangzhou, Guangdong Province, China
Select one of your emails
You have multiple emails registered with Frontiers:
Notify me on publication
Please enter your email address:
If you already have an account, please login
You don't have a Frontiers account ? You can register here
Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is among the most aggressive malignancies of the digestive tract, with a 5-year survival rate below 13%. It often infiltrates surrounding tissues early, making it challenging to distinguish primary pancreatic involvement from adjacent malignancies on imaging. Despite advancements in surgery, chemotherapy, and radiotherapy, PDAC still carries a high risk of recurrence. Here, we present a case initially diagnosed by imaging and biopsy as a duodenal malignancy. The patient underwent robotic-assisted laparoscopic pancreaticoduodenectomy, and final pathology confirmed moderately differentiated PDAC. Postoperative treatment with eight cycles of a modified AG (GN) regimen achieved 17 months of tumor-free survival. Following the detection of peritoneal metastases, the patient received six months of NALIRIFOX therapy and achieved complete remission by the ninth month after recurrence. This case underscores the critical role of surgery and adjuvant chemotherapy in resectable PDAC. It also highlights the importance of vigilant postoperative surveillance for early detection of recurrence and emphasizes the concept of pseudoprogression when interpreting imaging findings.
Keywords: PDAC, Resectable pancreatic cancer, chemotherapy, tumor recurrence, pseudoprogression
Received: 24 Feb 2025; Accepted: 10 Oct 2025.
Copyright: © 2025 He, Zheng, Chen, Hu, Huang, Lin, Jiang and Chen. This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License (CC BY). The use, distribution or reproduction in other forums is permitted, provided the original author(s) or licensor are credited and that the original publication in this journal is cited, in accordance with accepted academic practice. No use, distribution or reproduction is permitted which does not comply with these terms.
* Correspondence: Rihua He, 16rhhe@alumni.stu.edu.cn
Disclaimer: All claims expressed in this article are solely those of the authors and do not necessarily represent those of their affiliated organizations, or those of the publisher, the editors and the reviewers. Any product that may be evaluated in this article or claim that may be made by its manufacturer is not guaranteed or endorsed by the publisher.