Dr. O'Reilly on Veliparib/Chemotherapy Triplet in Germline BRCA/PALB2+ Pancreatic Cancer

Eileen M. O’Reilly, MD, discusses the randomized phase II trial of gemcitabine and cisplatin versus gemcitabine and cisplatin and veliparib (ABT-888) in patients with pancreas adenocarcinoma (PDAC) harboring a known germline BRCA or PALB2 mutation, which was presented at the 2020 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

Both study arms were initially considered to be experimental arms, says O'Reilly. The investigators observed a very high response in both groups. The response rates in the triplet arm were higher than in the doublet arm, but the difference was not statistically significant. The progression-free survival was 10 months in both arms and there was also a signal of an overall survival benefit across arms, which was 15 months and 16 months, respectively.

In a pooled analysis that included all patients in the study, one-third lived 2 years following treatment and 20% lived 3 years. These data suggest that there is a tail on the curve for this subset of patient with pancreatic cancer.

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