A study by the Tsukuba group in Japan repored outcomes of 42 unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer patients treated with PBT and concurrent chemotherapy. This study reported the 1-year/2-year OS rates from the start of CCRT were 77.8/50.8% with median survival time of 25.6 months. The 1-year/2-year LC rate from CCRT start was 83.3/78.9% with a median time to local recurrence of more than 36 months.

Late adverse events of grades 1 and 2 were found in 3 and 2 patients. No late adverse effects of grade 3 or higher were observed. The authors concluded that proton beam concurrent chemoradiation lengthened survival periods compared to previous photon concurrent chemoradiation data and higher dose irradiation prolonged LC and OS for unresectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer patients.