pancreas diseases : New Drug Combination Found to Be Effective

New Drug Combination Found to Be Effective in Gemcitabine-Resistant Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer


PancreasWeb 18/04/06
According to the findings of Italian researchers, a combination treatment of raltitrexed and oxaliplatin seems to be effective in gemcitabine-resistant metastatic pancreatic cancer. Michele Reni, MD, and his team investigated 41 patients (>18 years, performance status =50) who had stopped responding to gemcitabine. They received raltitrexed 3mg/m2 and oxaliplatin 130mg/m2 every 3 weeks until progression, toxicity, or a maximum of 6 cycles. A total of 137 cycles were administered, with a dose intensity of 92% of the intended dose for both drugs. Main grade >2 toxicity was found in 10 patients, including neutropenia, thrombocytopenia, vomiting and fatigue. Clinical benefit was seen in 21 patients (51%): 10 subjects showed a partial response, and 11 had stable disease. At 6 months, progression-free survival was 14.6%, with a median survival of 5.2 months. The researchers also found that a longer previous progression-free survival positively influenced survival in this study. Michele Reni concluded that a clinically relevant improvement of quality of life was observed in numerous domains. The data has been presented in an article published in the British Journal of Cancer (2006;94:785-791).

PancreasWeb 18/04/06