New treatments improve outlook for pancreatic cancer patients

A team of surgeons and oncologists at the Siteman Cancer Center at Washington University School of Medicine and Barnes-Jewish Hospital is aggressively tackling pancreatic cancer — one of the deadliest forms of cancer — and conducting clinical trials of innovative treatment regimens.

“The perception of a lot of people is that once you get a diagnosis of pancreatic cancer there’s not much that can be done, but that’s not true,” says pancreatic cancer surgeon David Linehan, M.D. “We’re attacking this very difficult disease from multiple angles — it’s a team effort. One of our areas of focus is ways to manipulate the immune system so that it can fight the tumor.”

Their latest clinical endeavor yielded very promising results by including the immune-system stimulator interferon along with chemotherapy and radiation in patients who had surgery to remove their pancreatic tumors. In a study recently published in the Annals of Surgery, the team reported that after three years, 41 percent of the patients on this regimen were still alive. In comparison, typical three-year survival rates are about 30 percent.

Linehan and his Washington University colleagues are part of the largest regional surgical referral center for disorders of the liver, gallbladder, pancreas and GI tract. They have years of experience treating pancreatic cancer surgically and medically. Many of their pancreatic cancer patients are still alive five or more years after diagnosis. The team is continuing to initiate new trials for pancreatic cancer and plans to start a second trial of interferon-based therapy to attempt to reduce the adverse reactions to interferon by altering time and dosage.