Issn Print: 1742-8009

Publication Date: 2009/10/01


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Breakthrough in treatment of stage IV pancreatic islet cell tumours

Peter Goodwin

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Author Information: After a stalemate of some 20 years, French researchers have made a major breakthrough in the treatment of advanced pancreatic islet cell tumours, discovering that sunitinib can achieve a 100% improvement in progressionfree survival.

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In a study by French researchers reported at the ESMO World Congress on Gastrointestinal Cancers, treatment with sunitinib for advanced pancreatic islet cell tumours extended progression-free survival by 100%.
The Phase III double-blind study, which randomised 340 patients to treatment or placebo, was designed to detect a 50% improvement in progression-free survival. However, the study was halted on the recommendation of the independent data monitoring committee when fewer than half this number of patients had been recruited - because progression-free survival had already improved by 100%.
‘We made a breakthrough - we have a new drug where there was nothing available for more than 20 years’, said Dr Eric Raymond, professor of medical oncology and head of the university department at the Service Inter Hospitalier de Cancerologie), Bichat-Beaujon in Clichy, Paris, in an interview after his presentation. ‘And the drug is proficient - at least in prolonging progression-free survival - and it's safe.’
‘The Phase III double-blind study, which randomised 340 patients to treatment or placebo, was designed to detect a 50% improvement in progression-free survival. However, the study was halted on the recommendation of the independent data monitoring committee when fewer than half this number of patients had been recruited - because progression-free survival had already improved by 100%’
The motivation for doing the study, explained Dr Raymond, was that this particular neuroendocrine tumour is a very rare type of cancer with ‘high medical needs’ which had few treatments available - leaving patients with limited options when their disease progressed.
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