New Hope for Patients with Pancreatic Cancer
Pancreas cancer is the eighth most common cancer in Australia but is the third leading cause of cancer death. The pancreas is an organ close to the liver that helps with digestion. Cancers arising from the pancreas are difficult to detect early, are rarely amenable to curative surgery, and are biologically aggressive. Although chemotherapy has some benefit, the 5-year survival rates for pancreatic cancer remain approximately 14%.
About 90% cases of pancreatic cancer are driven by mutations in the KRAS gene. Unlike common mutations in other cancers, mutations in KRAS have been difficult to treat with a new generation of drugs called targeted therapy. This has changed in the last 5 years with several discoveries by scientists leading to the discovery of a new class of drugs that can inhibit the mutant KRAS protein in lung and pancreatic cancer.
In early phase clinical trials, these new therapies have shown promising activity in pancreatic cancer patients who have failed to respond to chemotherapy. More recently, breakthrough publication in the New England Journal of Medicine showed for the first time an improvement in survival in previously treated patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. This was widely reported in the news after a presentation at the American Society of Clinical Oncology Meeting.
Three new clinical trials recently opened at PASO Medical will now provide pancreatic cancer patients whose tumours contain a mutation in KRAS. These new treatments are being tested in early phase clinical trials in previously treated patients.
The aim of these trials is to detect signs of clinical activity as well as document any side effects. PASO Medical is one of several sites in Australia and internationally that are testing these new treatments in pancreatic cancer. The results of these clinical trials will be collected and used to design larger studies to determine if KRAS inhibitors could potentially replace chemotherapy as the treatment of choice for patients with pancreatic cancer.
PASO Medical is condicting two early phase clinical trials using KRAS inhibitors in pancreatic cancer, LOXO-RAS-20001 and Verastem VS-7375-101. Planning for additional trials of new KRAS inhibitors at PASO Medical is currently underway. Further details about clinical trials at PASO Medical can be found here.