The work of nine researchers who have previously received funding from Conquer Cancer is featured in ASCO’s Clinical Cancer Advances 2020. Visit CONQUER.ORG for more details.
Advance of the Year: Refinement of Surgical Treatment
At Massachusetts General Hospital, Janet Murphy, MD, is expanding care options for patients with locally advanced pancreatic cancer.
Janet Murphy, MD
Patients with pancreatic cancer often have tumors that surgeons cannot remove. To make surgery an option for patients who need it, researchers tested 49 patients with previously untreated locally advanced pancreatic cancer who received a combination of intensive chemotherapy and radiation therapy, as well as the blood pressure drug losartan. For patients who met surgery requirements, an operation was performed either 1 to 3 weeks after a short course of radiotherapy or 4 to 8 weeks after a longer course.
Use of the combination therapy allowed 34 of the 49 participants to have their tumors surgically removed. For 30 patients (61%), surgery removed all evidence of cancer around the tumor.
Results from this study suggest that a prescribed therapy could help more patients prepare for surgery following upfront treatment, though confirmation is needed with randomized trials.
© 2020. American Society of Clinical Oncology. All rights reserved.
