Author Archives: pancreatica
FDA Grants Orphan Status for the CRS-207 Vaccine with GVAX Immunotherapy for Pancreatic Cancer
In an interesting step with intriguingly complex promise, the Office of Orphan Products Development of the U.S. Food and Drug Administration recently designated the immunotherapy CRS-207 as having orphan drug status for use in sequential combination with the GVAX Pancreas biologic for the treatment of pancreatic cancer (ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas). Both of these […]
FOLFIRINOX (Minus Irinotecan) for Gemcitabine-refractory Pancreatic Cancer
Since the promising article on the 4-drug 5-FU led FOLFIRINOX regimen for metastatic pancreatic cancer (ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas) per the May 12, 2011 article in the New England Journal of Medicine, this treatment approach has emerged as a solid first-line option. In the ensuing months there have been a number of studies exploring […]
Microwave “Surgery” for Pancreatic Cancer
Studies involving the thermal (heating) mode for the treatment of pancreatic cancer (ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas) have generally concentrated on radio waves. This form of “surgery” is called ablation – and of course is not surgery at all, but the destruction of tumor tissue by heating it to levels that cause cell death. Generally, the […]
Clinical Trial Results with Votrient for Advanced Neuroendocrine Tumors
Votrient (pazopanib) is a drug-agent of GlaxoSmithKline that appears to work through targeting angiogenesis and growth pathways, and has been approved for use in renal cell carcinoma and advanced soft tissue sarcoma, and now is under study for use in neuroendocrine tumors. Two other recent targeted agents that have been approved by the U.S. FDA […]
A Setback for ARBs for the Treatment of Pancreatic Cancer?
Again, for more than a decade there have been theoretical discussions about the use of drugs commonly used to treat high blood pressure for use in the treatment of cancer – pancreatic cancer (ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas). And having just published a Pancreatica blog entry based on the pre-clinical study and work by Jain […]