Martínez-Galán J, Jiménez-Luna C, Rodriguez I, Maza E, García-Collado C, Rodríguez-Fernández A, López-Hidalgo JL, Caba O. Metastatic pancreatic and lung cancer patient in complete remission following immunotherapy: A case report and review of literature. World J Gastrointest Oncol 2024; 16(5): 2233-2240 [PMID: 38764840 DOI: 10.4251/wjgo.v16.i5.2233]
Corresponding Author of This Article
Cristina Jiménez-Luna, PhD, Senior Researcher, Institute of Biopathology and Regenerative Medicine (IBIMER), University of Granada, Avenida del Conocimiento, s/n, Granada 18016, Spain. crisjilu@ugr.es
Research Domain of This Article
Gastroenterology & Hepatology
Article-Type of This Article
Case Report
Open-Access Policy of This Article
This article is an open-access article which was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution Non Commercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc/4.0/
World J Gastrointest Oncol. May 15, 2024; 16(5): 2233-2240 Published online May 15, 2024. doi: 10.4251/wjgo.v16.i5.2233
Metastatic pancreatic and lung cancer patient in complete remission following immunotherapy: A case report and review of literature
Joaquina Martínez-Galán, Cristina Jiménez-Luna, Isabel Rodriguez, Elisabeth Maza, Carlos García-Collado, Antonio Rodríguez-Fernández, Javier Luis López-Hidalgo, Octavio Caba
Joaquina Martínez-Galán, Isabel Rodriguez, Elisabeth Maza, Department of Medical Oncology, Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital, Granada 18014, Spain
Joaquina Martínez-Galán, Cristina Jiménez-Luna, Isabel Rodriguez, Elisabeth Maza, Carlos García-Collado, Antonio Rodríguez-Fernández, Javier Luis López-Hidalgo, Octavio Caba, Instituto de Investigación Biosanitaria, Ibs. Granada, Granada 18012, Spain
Cristina Jiménez-Luna, Octavio Caba, Institute of Biopathology and Regenerative Medicine (IBIMER), University of Granada, Granada 18016, Spain
Carlos García-Collado, Pharmacogenetics Unit, Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital, Granada 18014, Spain
Antonio Rodríguez-Fernández, Department of Medicina Nuclear, Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital, Granada 18014, Spain
Javier Luis López-Hidalgo, Department of Anatomía Patológica, Virgen de las Nieves University Hospital, Granada 18014, Spain
Author contributions: Martínez-Galán J collected and analyzed the data, took care of the patient and wrote and edited the manuscript; Rodriguez I, Maza E contributed to collect and analyze the patient data; García-Collado C contributed to the patient's treatment; Rodríguez-Fernández A contributed to the acquisition and analysis of pathologic images; López-Hidalgo JL contributed to molecular diagnostics; Jiménez-Luna C contributed to critical revision and writing of the manuscript; Caba O contributed to conceptualization and supervision; all authors have read and approved the final manuscript.
Informed consent statement: Informed written consent was obtained from the patient for publication of this report and any accompanying images.
Conflict-of-interest statement: All the authors report no relevant conflicts of interest for this article.
CARE Checklist (2016) statement: The authors have read CARE Checklist (2016), and the manuscript was prepared and revised according to CARE Checklist (2016).
Open-Access: This article is an open-access article that was selected by an in-house editor and fully peer-reviewed by external reviewers. It is distributed in accordance with the Creative Commons Attribution NonCommercial (CC BY-NC 4.0) license, which permits others to distribute, remix, adapt, build upon this work non-commercially, and license their derivative works on different terms, provided the original work is properly cited and the use is non-commercial. See: https://creativecommons.org/Licenses/by-nc/4.0/
Corresponding author: Cristina Jiménez-Luna, PhD, Senior Researcher, Institute of Biopathology and Regenerative Medicine (IBIMER), University of Granada, Avenida del Conocimiento, s/n, Granada 18016, Spain. crisjilu@ugr.es
Received: December 31, 2023 Peer-review started: December 31, 2023 First decision: January 27, 2024 Revised: February 9, 2024 Accepted: March 13, 2024 Article in press: March 13, 2024 Published online: May 15, 2024 Processing time: 129 Days and 20 Hours
Core Tip
Core Tip: 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 immunotherapy 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.
