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SCALOP is the UK trial that decided which chemotherapy to give with radiotherapy for pancreatic cancer that cannot be removed: after three months of induction chemotherapy, capecitabine during radiotherapy gave longer survival and far less blood toxicity than gemcitabine, and it is the radiosensitiser NICE recommends.
SCALOP registered 114 patients between December 2009 and October 2011 and randomised 74 (36 to capecitabine-based and 38 to gemcitabine-based chemoradiotherapy) after induction gemcitabine and capecitabine. Nine-month progression-free survival was 62.9 percent (80 percent confidence interval 50.6 to 73.9) with capecitabine against 51.4 percent (39.4 to 63.4) with gemcitabine; median overall survival 15.2 against 13.4 months (adjusted hazard ratio 0.39, 95 percent confidence interval 0.18 to 0.81; p 0.012) and 12-month survival 79.2 against 64.2 percent. Grade 3 to 4 haematological toxicity during chemoradiotherapy occurred in 18 percent of the gemcitabine arm and none of the capecitabine arm (p 0.008). The long-term analysis (BJC 2017; 105 of 114 patients dead) gave median survival 17.6 against 14.6 months (adjusted hazard ratio 0.68; p 0.185) and identified a CA 19-9 below 46 IU/mL after induction as the marker of patients most likely to benefit from chemoradiotherapy. NICE NG85 recommends capecitabine as the radiosensitiser when chemoradiotherapy is used (1.9.3). SCALOP-2 (159 patients, Oxford) tested higher-dose radiotherapy and nelfinavir after nab-paclitaxel-based induction and had not published its primary results in an indexed journal on 24 September 2026.
Numbers are from the trial as recorded here; see the source links in the table below. This is orientation, not medical advice: ask your team how closely the trial population matches you.
114 enrolled.
80% CI 50.6 to 73.9; 35 assessable · 80% CI 39.4 to 63.4
Source| Endpoint | Arm | n | Value | HR (95% CI) | p | Source |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Progression-free survival at 9 monthsprimary | Capecitabine-based chemoradiotherapy | 35 | 62.9% | - | - | link |
| Gemcitabine-based chemoradiotherapy | 35 | 51.4% | ||||
| Overall survival (primary report) | Capecitabine-based chemoradiotherapy | 36 | 15.2 months | 0.39 (0.18 to 0.81) | 0.012 | link |
| Gemcitabine-based chemoradiotherapy | 38 | 13.4 months |
Shares LAP07, Chemoradiation (chemoradiotherapy, CRT), Locally advanced unresectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Gemcitabine.
Shares LAP07, Locally advanced unresectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Capecitabine, Gemcitabine.
Shares CA 19-9, Capecitabine, Gemcitabine, Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
Shares LAP07, Locally advanced unresectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
Shares Locally advanced unresectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Gemcitabine, Cytotoxic chemotherapy, Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
Shares Locally advanced unresectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Gemcitabine, Cytotoxic chemotherapy, Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
Shares Locally advanced unresectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Gemcitabine, Cytotoxic chemotherapy, Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma.
Shares Locally advanced unresectable pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Capecitabine, IMRT / IGRT (modern external beam), Cytotoxic chemotherapy.