The U.S. Food and Drug Administration has approved the drug combination of Abraxane with gemcitabine for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer following seven years of clinical trials overseen by Scottsdale Healthcare and the Translational Genomics Research Institute (TGen).
Dr. Daniel Von Hoff, TGen Physician-in-Chief and Chief Scientific Officer at Scottsdale Healthcare’s Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center Clinical Trials, was the principal investigator of the clinical study of 861 cancer patients at 121 sites in North America, Europe and Australia.
The study found that the combination of Abraxane and gemcitabine extended median overall survival by nearly two months, compared to gemcitabine alone— extending median survival to 8.5 months, from 6.7 months. The one-year median survival of patients increased to 35 percent, from 22 percent.
The FDA estimates that 45,220 patients will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer and 38,460 will die from the disease this year. It is the fourth-leading cause of cancer deaths in the United States.
For more information:
“Cancer drug combo tested in metro Phoenix is OK’d,” Arizona Republic, 9/6/13
“FDA approves a drug for late-stage pancreatic cancer,” New York Times, 9/6/13
“FDA approves drug tested by Scottsdale Healthcare and TGen,” TGen Press Release, 9/6/13