Study Finds Rare Gain for Tough-to-Treat Pancreatic Cancer

[MULTIZ321]

Study Finds Rare Gain for Tough-to-Treat Pancreatic Cancer
By Lindsey Tanner/ AP News/ apnews.com

"CHICAGO (AP) — Patients with pancreatic cancer that hadn’t spread lived substantially longer on a four-drug combo than on a single standard cancer drug, a rare advance for a tough-to-treat disease, researchers reported Monday.

The results indicate the powerful chemotherapy treatment known as folfirinox will likely become standard of care for the minority of patients whose pancreatic cancer is diagnosed early enough to be removed by surgery, experts not involved in the study said.

After an average three years of follow-up, almost 40 percent of the folfirinox patients were disease-free compared with about 20 percent who had the standard drug, Gemzar. Overall, almost two-thirds of folfirinox patients were still alive compared with almost half of Gemzar patients, unexpectedly good results, said Dr. Thierry Conroy, the lead author and a cancer specialist at the Cancer Institute of Lorraine in Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, France.

Results were presented Monday at an American Society of Clinical Oncology conference in Chicago....."

Richard

 

[Beachclubmum]

As a former stage 4 cancer patient, and as someone who lost a dear friend to pancreatic cancer, 3 cheers for good news on the cancer war!!!

 

[WalnutBaron]

The magazine Prevention lists pancreatic cancer as the deadliest of all, with a survival rate of only 7% (defining "survival rate" as having lived for 5 years from the date of diagnosis). Any progress on this dread disease is great news.