Pancreatic Cancer

Chicago, IL—Maintenance therapy with the targeted drug olaparib (Lynparza) after first-line platinum-based chemotherapy prolonged progression-­free survival (PFS) in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer and a germ­line BRCA mutation, according to results of the phase 3 POLO clinical trial presented at the plenary session at ASCO 2019. Lead investigator Hedy L. Kindler, MD, FASCO, Medical Director, Gastrointestinal Oncology, University of Chicago Medicine, IL, presented the results.

Orlando, FL—Germline testing should now be considered for any patient with pancreatic cancer, and molecular analysis of tumors should be considered in patients with metastatic disease, according to the updated National Comprehensive Cancer Network (NCCN) guideline for pancreatic cancer presented at the 2019 NCCN Conference.

Adding capecitabine chemotherapy to gemcitabine after pancreatic cancer resection was associated with longer overall survival (OS) than gemcitabine chemotherapy alone, according to results from the European Study Group for Pancreatic Cancer (ESPAC)-4 clinical trial. For the small proportion of patients with pancreatic cancer who are candidates for surgery, adjuvant gemcitabine chemotherapy is the current standard of care worldwide, said John P. Neoptolemos, MD, Chair of Surgery, University of Liverpool, United Kingdom, during an oral abstract session at the 2016 American Society of Clinical Oncology annual meeting. “We thought that the combination of gemcitabine plus capecitabine…may be better than gemcitabine alone, and launched the phase 3 ESPAC-4 trial,” he stated.

Pancreatic cancer is the third leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. Nearly half of patients with locoregional pancreatic cancer do not undergo potentially curative surgery, primarily because of nonclinical factors, according to the results of an analysis of data from the National Cancer Institute database by Amy T. Cunningham, MPH, a doctoral candidate at Thomas Jefferson University in Philadelphia, and colleagues.

A new article by a New York surgical team confirms that there is a survival benefit from an emerging therapy for difficult-to-treat soft-tissue tumors, but that it is not without a steep price for some patients.

San Francisco, CA—New cytotoxic combinations introduced over the past several years for the treatment of advanced pancreatic adenocarcinoma now constitute the standard of care for the treatment of all stages of the disease. Eileen M. O’Reilly, MD, Gastrointestinal Medical Oncologist, Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, New York, reviewed emerging treatments at the 2014 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.