Drug trial hope for pancreatic cancer victims
Aim is to shrink tumours to allow their removal
SCIENTISTS in Scotland are set to lead a first-of-its-kind pancreatic cancer clinical trial to make cells more responsive to chemotherapy and radiotherapy.
The Cancer Research UK trial will treat pancreatic cancer patients whose cancer has grown too big to be removed by surgery but has not yet spread to other parts of the body.
It is launching simultaneously today at the The Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre in Glasgow and three other hospitals, in Belfast, Leicester and London.
Researchers will test the effects of a drug called olaparib – brand name Lynparza – on patients in conjunction with the standard treatment of chemotherapy and radiation, known as chemoradiation.
In the first stage of the trial, the doctors want to find the safest dose of olaparib to give with chemoradiation.
They then hope that the combined therapy will shrink the tumour to a small enough size that it can be surgically removed.
Professor Jeff Evans, chief investigator at Glasgow University, said: “This is the first time we’re looking at ways to make pancreatic cancer cells more sensitive to radiotherapy. One way to make pancreatic cancer a more treatable disease is to shrink the tumour enough to make surgery a possibility and we hope to see that happen in this trial.”
Radiotherapy, and some chemotherapy drugs, work by causing damage to DNA in cancer cells. When cancer cells repair this damage, then the tumours become resistant to treatment.
Cells rely on an enzyme called PARP-1 to help repair their damaged DNA, but olaparib blocks this enzyme from working thereby increasing the likelihood that cancer cells will be killed off by radiotherapy.
The drug has been approved by the European Medicines Agency for the treatment of certain types of advanced ovarian cancer and is used in clinical trials for other types of cancer, including pancreatic. It is available on the NHS in England and Wales for eligible ovarian cancer patients, but has so far been rejected for routine use by the Scottish Medicines Consortium.
In Scotland, pancreatic cancer incidence rates have increased by 12 per cent over the past 10 years, with about 790 people a year now being diagnosed with the disease. In many cases, the tumours are only identified at a stage when they are too big to be removed by surgery.
Cancer survivor Noreen Leighton, 58, from Stirling, was diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in February 2011. She was subsequently recruited on to a clinical trial which she credits with saving her life.
Mrs Leighton said: “After I had an operation to remove the tumour, my doctor enrolled me on a clinical trial and that’s the reason I’m here and able to spend time with my two beautiful grandchildren.
“Research transformed my life and now I live in the moment of every day. Pancreatic patients urgently need new treatment options and the only way to find these is through research.” PARK visitors were taken back in time as history enthusiasts recreated two trenches from the First World War.
Both Allied and German soldiers were represented, allowing visitors the chance to see what life was like in the trenches.
The new trenches were unveiled as part of the new Digging In learning facility at Glasgow’s Pollok Park.
Dr Olivia Lelong, director at Northlight Heritage, the charity behind the project, said: “Digging In is about trying to convey the enormous stresses that the First World War imposed on people.”