New treatment could save pancreatic cancer patients
Tests on a combination of drugs set to be a major breakthrough
A NEW combination of drugs that could save the lives of pancreatic cancer sufferers is to be tested in Scotland.
The assessments will form part of a new collaboration between Cancer Research UK and drugs companies MSD and Verastem, and will be co-led by scientists in Edinburgh.
It will also look at whether the drugs can be used for lung cancer patients.
Cancer Research UK said it will investigate whether the effectiveness of an immunotherapy drug developed by MSD, called pembrolizumab, can be boosted by giving it in combination with a second drug, called defactinib, from Verastem, which works by blocking a protein called Focal Adhesion Kinase (FAK).
Previous studies have found FAK is often overproduced in tumours and enables cancer cells to repel medication.
The new drugs combination will be tested in around 60 patients with mesothelioma, non small cell lung and pancreatic cancers.
Many patients are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer at a stage when the tumour is too big to be removed via surgery.
Incidents of pancreatic cancer have risen by 12 per cent over the past decade in Scotland.
It is estimated by Cancer Research UK that about 9,400 people are diagnosed with the form of the disease each year in the UK.
The trial is to begin later this year and will be managed by the Cancer Research UK clinical trials unit in Glasgow and co-sponsored by the University of Glasgow and NHS Greater Glasgow and Clyde.
Trial co-lead Dr Stefan Symeonides, from the University of Edinburgh, said: “We’ve seen remarkable benefits from pembrolizumab for some patients with hardto-treat cancers, like melanoma and lung cancer.
“We’re hoping that the addition of defactinib will extend those benefits to more patients.
“This work could one day give a new treatment option that saves lives for this group of patients.”
The charity hopes a successful trial will lead to further collaboration between medical companies to improve treatment.
Dr Ian Walker, director of clinical research at Cancer Research UK, said: “It’s vital that we find new treatments for these three cancers which take tens of thousands of lives each year in the UK.
“Our Combinations Alliance was set up to help develop partnerships between drug development companies and researchers to try new combinations of drugs in the hope of improving treatments and saving more lives from cancer.
“This is our first success in bringing together two organisations and we hope that this combination of immunotherapy drugs will benefit patients.”
Last month a Cancer Research UK treatment designed to make cancer cells more responsive to chemotherapy and radiotherapy was launched at the Beatson West of Scotland Cancer Centre.
It will treat pancreatic cancer patients whose cancer has grown too big to be removed by surgery but has not yet spread.
Meanwhile, NHS Lanarkshire is to become only the second health board in Scotland to introduce a new method to improve detection of bowel cancer and avoid unnecessary medical checks is to be introduced across Lanarkshire.
The testing kit, quantitative FIT is to be brought in following a successful pilot in a small number of GP practices.
‘‘ This work could one day give a new treatment option that saves lives for this group of patients