Combo Treatment for Pancreatic Cancer
Reported June 09, 2008
(Ivanhoe Newswire) A new study finds combining two drugs could extend the lives of pancreatic cancer patients. Pancreatic cancer is responsible for 227,000 deaths worldwide every year. Its also one of the deadliest types of cancer, with a five-year survival at 5 percent.
The standard of care for more than a decade for pancreatic cancer has been a chemotherapy drug called gemcitabine. New therapies in conjunction with gemcitabine have been studied, but nothing has proven effective. Now, researchers in Paris, France conducted a study looking at the use of a tumor treatment drug called axitinib combined with gemcitabine.
The study included 103 pancreatic cancer patients with inoperable, locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer. The patients received either gemcitabine and axitinib or gemcitabine alone. Researchers found the overall survival was 1.3 months longer for the patients on the combined treatment. They say while this is not statistically significant, they feel it is worth further research.
Study authors say a phase III clinical trial is now underway looking at this combined therapy compared to gemcitabine alone.
SOURCE: Published early Online and in an upcoming edition of The Lancet, 2008