Dr. Cline on Data With PARP Inhibitors in Pancreatic Cancer

Mika Cline, MD, hematologist/oncologist at Texas Oncology, discusses data with PARP inhibitors in patients with BRCA1/2 mutated pancreatic cancer.

The treatment options for pancreatic cancer have lagged behind other cancers, such as breast cancer and ovarian cancer, says Cline. There are few targeted therapy options for patients with pancreatic cancer. However, in the phase III POLO trial patients with a germline BRCA1/2 mutation were treated with the PARP inhibitor olaparib (Lynparza), which has demonstrated antitumor activity in this subtype.

The POLO trial is a phase III study that showed a progression-free survival (PFS) benefit with olaparib compared with placebo. The median PFS with the PARP inhibitor was 7.4 months compared with 3.8 months in the placebo arm (HR, 0.53; 95% CI, 0.35-0.81; P = .0035). After 2 years, 22.1% of patients had no disease progression versus 9.6% of those who received placebo.

The National Comprehensive Cancer Network recently recommended new guidelines for genetic risk assessment of patients with pancreatic cancer, which have encouraged patients with pancreatic cancer to undergo genetic testing.