Study on Treating Basal-like Pancreatic Cancer with Gemcitabine, Erlotinib, and Nab-paclitaxel

Program Overview

The study aims to determine the best dose of a new treatment combination for patients with advanced basal-like pancreatic cancer. This involves using low-dose EGFR inhibitors with gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel, given every two weeks. The study will also look at how safe and effective this treatment is, and how well it can shrink tumors. Patients will be classified as having either 'basal type' or 'classical' pancreatic cancer using a method called PurIST. Those with basal-like cancer will receive the new treatment, while those with classical cancer will receive standard chemotherapy.

Description

The usual treatment for advanced pancreatic cancer includes FOLFIRINOX, NALIRIFOX, or gemcitabine/nab-paclitaxel. However, basal-like pancreatic cancer often does not respond well to FOLFIRINOX. Research suggests that adding an EGFR inhibitor like erlotinib to gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel may improve outcomes for basal-like pancreatic cancer compared to FOLFIRINOX.

Patients with classical pancreatic cancer will receive standard chemotherapy, while those with basal-like cancer will receive the erlotinib combination. The study's goal is to find the best dose of the erlotinib combination, which is not yet FDA-approved, although the individual drugs are approved for pancreatic cancer. The study will enroll 52 patients with basal-like cancer to test the safety and effectiveness of the treatment. Another 52 patients with classical cancer will receive standard chemotherapy to compare long-term outcomes like survival and tumor response.

The study uses a special design to find safe and effective doses and will expand to include more patients once the best dose is found. This will help determine how well the treatment works for basal-like pancreatic cancer.

Eligibility Criteria

Locations