Metastatic pancreatic and lung cancer patient in complete remission following immunotherapy: A case report and review of literature

Abstract

The lack of specific symptoms in patients and the absence of a reliable and well-stablished diagnostic method, makes advanced pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) the most common clinical appearance of pancreatic cancer cases. In these circumstances, surgical resection, the only curative approach for this malignancy, is unaffordable, leading to very low survival outcomes. Immunotherapy is a recent approach that has been studied in many cancer types showing encouraging results, but it has not been sufficiently investigated in PDAC. We report the case of a patient with unresectable PDAC that progressed to metastasis after treatment with chemoradiation, who showed an outstanding response to immuno- therapy with pembrolizumab, achieving a complete remission within a few months, which was maintained until the end of treatment. Currently, the patient continues in disease-free state.