Trial to test experimental drug for advanced pancreatic cancer
Cancer Research UK's Drug Development Office has launched a clinical trial to test an experimental drug in patients with advanced (Stage IV) pancreatic cancer - one of the most difficult cancers to treat.
Around 60 patients with advanced pancreatic cancer will be recruited for the first Phase I/II clinical trial of a drug called MK-0752 in this disease. MK-0752 will be administered in combination with the standard treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer, gemcitabine.
Trials have already tested the effects of the drug when administered in isolation. In these trials MK-0752 was tolerated with acceptable side-effects when given to patients with cancer using a similar schedule as the current study.
The trial will initially test the safety of the drug at low levels, but the dose will be escalated as the trial proceeds to find a suitable dose level. Once a suitable dose has been defined, the second stage of the study is to test the effectiveness of the drug in treating pancreatic cancer.
The MK-0752 is being provided by pharmaceutical company Merck & Co Inc, in a collaboration with Cancer Research UK's Drug Development Office, to study it in patients with pancreatic cancer.
Every year around 7,800 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the UK - around 21 people every day. The one-year survival rate for the disease has more than doubled since the 1970s, but the rate is still very low with only around 16 per cent surviving beyond a year. In addition, only around three per cent of pancreatic cancer patients survive the disease for five years or more.