Dr. O'Reilly on Agents in Development in Advanced Pancreatic Cancer

Eileen O'Reilly, MD, associate director for clinical research and medical oncologist at Memorial Sloan Kettering Cancer Center, discusses agents in development in advanced pancreatic cancer.

Among the many treatment strategies under investigation in advanced pancreatic cancer, DNA repair agents, stromal modulation agents, and metabolic activation agents are some of the most promising, says O’Reilly. Immunotherapy also continues to be explored although it has been an elusive approach in pancreatic cancer.

When it comes to DNA repair, PARP inhibitors have shown a great deal of promise in the space, especially among patients with germline BRCA mutations, according to data from the phase III POLO trial. In the trial, maintenance therapy with olaparib (Lynparza) significantly prolonged progression-free survival versus placebo in patients with germline BRCA-mutated metastatic disease. In terms of stromal modulation, PEGPH20 (pegvorhyaluronidase alfa) has become the focus of research after limited success with hedgehog inhibitors, adds O’Reilly. Finally, regarding metabolic agents, devimistat (CPI-613) and eryaspase (Graspa), the latter of which has been developed primarily in Europe, may prove to be valuable pending further study.