DOI: 10.1097/01.COT.0000292740.03322.8d

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Issn Print: 0276-2234

Publication Date: 2005/06/25


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Advanced Pancreatic Cancer: Erlotinib + Gemcitabine Extends Survival, But Questionable Whether This Represents New Standard of Care

Alice Goodman

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Excerpt

ORLANDO, FL—For patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, combination therapy with gemcitabine, the standard of care, plus erlotinib, an epidermal growth factor (EGFR) inhibitor, significantly increased one-year and progression-free survival compared with gemcitabine alone in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer, according to the results of a study presented as Abstract #1 at the ASCO Annual Meeting.
One-year survival was increased by about 40% for patients who received the combination. Although these are encouraging results, further study is needed, experts said, and it is not clear whether this combination will become the standard of care.
This is the first trial to show a benefit for targeted therapy in pancreatic cancer, and it is the first demonstration of the survival benefit of an EGFR inhibitor plus cytotoxic chemotherapy, said lead investigator Malcolm J. Moore, MD, Director of the New Drug Development Program at Princess Margaret Hospital and Professor of Medicine and Pharmacology at the University of Toronto.
This is also the first gemcitabine-based combination to show a survival benefit, he noted.
Gemcitabine has been the standard of care for the past decade. Previous studies of gemcitabine in combination with other agents failed to show a benefit over that observed with gemcitabine alone.
Combinations that have been studied include gemcitabine and fluorouracil, gemcitabine and oxaliplatin, gemcitabine and irinotecan, and gemcitabine and pemetrexed.

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