UIC is conducting clinical trials to evaluate the three-drug combination therapy for advanced pancreatic cancer

UIC is conducting clinical trials to evaluate the three-drug combination therapy for advanced pancreatic cancer -

Researchers at the University of Illinois at Chicago are leading a clinical trial to evaluate a new, three -drug combination therapy for advanced pancreatic cancer.

ductal carcinoma of the pancreas has a five year survival rate of less than 5 percent and is the fourth leading cause of cancer death in the United States, claiming nearly 40,000 lives each year.

scientists pace have made progress in the last decade to understand the biology of the disease at the cellular level, but progress in the clinical results are not kept.

"There is an urgent and unmet need for effective treatments for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer after first-line chemotherapy fails," said Dr. Neeta Venepalli, UIC assistant professor hematology and principal investigator of the study.

patients in the Phase 1 study will give three drugs that are considered to attack the cancer cells in different ways. First, gemcitabine is a chemotherapy drug approved by the FDA that works by slowing or stopping the growth of tumors. It has been the standard treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer for the past decade.

A second medicament, a monoclonal antibody which recognizes a protein called mucin 1 which prevents the death of cancer cells and is superabundant in ductal carcinoma of the pancreas, is administered to patients to stimulate an immune response. The antibody also attracts the third drug, PGG, which moves to the site of the tumor to activate an immune response and kill the targeted cancer cells

"Our Phase 1 trial combining gemcitabine with two new immunotherapies cancer -. A regime that has not been tried before, "said Venepalli, member of the IU Cancer Center.

" We are optimistic and pleased to provide a new approach for the treatment of this devastating disease. "

The study will evaluate the combination of drugs to determine the highest dose of the monoclonal antibody which can be tolerated without unacceptable side effects.

monoclonal antibody and PGG are experimental drugs and will be provided by Biothera, a US biotechnology company.