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Review
. 2024 Oct 1;110(10):6070-6080.
doi: 10.1097/JS9.0000000000000877.

Pancreatic cancer: new approaches to drug therapy

Vincent J Picozzi  1
Affiliations
Review

Pancreatic cancer: new approaches to drug therapy

Vincent J Picozzi. Int J Surg. .

Abstract

Outcomes in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) remain poor due to a variety of biological, clinical, and societal factors. However, in recent years, PDAC has seen 1) increased precision of initial evaluation, 2) increased emphasis on supportive care, 3) deeper understanding of the translation biology of PDAC, especially as pertains to genomic alterations, and 4) foundational combination chemotherapy clinical trials across all disease stages. These advances have led to a wide range of new approaches to drug therapy for PDAC. Currently available drugs are showing added benefit, both by resequencing them with each other and also with respect to other therapeutic modalities. Molecular strategies are being developed to predict response to known therapeutic agents and to identify others. Additionally, a wide range of new drugs for PDAC are under development, including drugs which inhibit critical molecular pathways, drugs which attempt to capitalize on homologous repair deficiencies, immunotherapeutic approaches, antimetabolic agents, and drugs which attack the extracellular matrix which supports PDAC growth. These new approaches offer the promise of improved survival for future PDAC patients.

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Conflict of interest statement

Research support from Ipsen, Fibrogen, Amal, Astellas, Pfizer, Novocure, and Verastem. Consultant for TriSalus.

Figures

Figure 1
Figure 1
Novel (PRIME) therapies for advanced stage pancreatic cancer. Figure reprinted from Nevala-Plagemann et al. 2020. Copyright 2020 Springer Nature and used with permission.
Figure 2
Figure 2
Intracellular targeting of RAS. Created with Biorender.com. Figure reprinted from Cowzer et al. 2022. https://doi.org/10.3390/jpm12111870. Copyright 2022 and reprinted under Creative Commons Attribution (CC BY) license (https://creativecommons.org/licenses/by/4.0/).
Figure 3
Figure 3
Tumor cell–immune cell–cancer-associated fibroblast circuits in PDAC. Reprinted from Hingorani 2023. Copyright 2023 Springer Nature and used with permission.
Figure 4
Figure 4
Role of connective tissue growth factor (CTGF) during cancer progression. Reprinted from Shen et al. 2021. Copyright 2021 Elsevier and used with permission.
Figure 5
Figure 5
ATP150/152, VSV-GP154 Kisima 02 trial. Figure reproduced courtesy of AMAL Therapeutics.
See this image and copyright information in PMC

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