Pancreatic Cancer: Targeted and Immunotherapies
Targeted and Immunotherapies for Pancreatic Cancer
This section covers the following topics:
What is ?
Targeted therapy is a type of cancer treatment designed to attack or kill cancer cells, while sparing normal cells as much as possible. They are designed to target abnormal proteins, receptors or genes that are found in cancer cells or the surrounding tissue. Often times additional testing on the cancer is used to decide if targeted therapy is the best treatment for a person with pancreatic cancer.
PARP inhibitors
PARP inhibitors work by blocking a protein used by cells to repair damaged . They were initially developed to treat cancers in people with an inherited or mutation. For people with pancreatic cancer, the Lynparza () has been approved as in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer whose cancer has stabilized after at least four months of chemotherapy. Approximately 5-8% of people with pancreatic cancers will have a mutation.
Research is ongoing to learn if PARP inhibitors are also affective for treating pancreatic cancer in other situations, including:
- people with an in a different gene that repairs DNA damage (for example: ).
- people who do not have an inherited gene mutation, but their tumor tested positive for an acquired mutation in a gene that repairs DNA damage.
- in combination with or other agents.
Other targeted therapies
Other targeted therapies used to treat pancreatic exocrine cancer include:
- Bizengri (zenocutuzumab) is a type of targeted therapy approved for treatment of advanced, unresectable, or pancreatic cancer with a known as an NRG1 gene fusion which got worse or came back on, or after prior treatment.
- Enhertu (trastuzumab deruxtecan) is a type of targeted therapy approved for treatment of advanced cancers that have a biomarker called .
- Retevmo (selpercatinib) is approved for treatment of of advanced cancers that have a biomarker called a RET gene fusion.
- Rozlytrek (entrectinib) is approved for treatment of of advanced cancers that have a biomarker called an NTRK fusion.
- Vitrakvi (larotrectinib) is approved for treatment of of advanced cancers that have a genetic change called an NTRK fusion.
Targeted therapies used to treat pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors include:
- Afinitor (everolimus) is a type of targeted therapy known as an mTOR inhibitor that is approved for treating people with advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.
- Sutent (sunitinib malate) is a targeted therapy that is FDA approved to treat patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors that cannot be removed by surgery or that have metastasized.
What is immunotherapy?
Immunotherapies are cancer treatments that help the body’s immune system detect and attack cancer cells. There are several different categories of immunotherapies.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors
Immune checkpoint inhibitors are a type of immunotherapy used to treat several types of cancer, including some pancreatic cancers. Cancer cells can switch off the immune system. Immune checkpoint inhibitors are drugs that prevent this from happening. This allows the immune system to find, unmask and destroy cancer cells.
- Jemperli (dostarlimab) is an immunotherapy that is FDA approved to treat metastatic cancers that have progressed after prior treatment, and for which there are no other available treatment options. The approval is for cancers that have a biomarker known as . This biomarker is often seen in cancers that develop in people with .
- Keytruda (pembrolizumab) is known as an immune checkpoint inhibitor. Keytruda is approved for treatment of patients with metastatic cancer with a biomarker known as microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair deficient (dMMR). Although this biomarker is not common in pancreatic cancer, it is often seen in people with a Lynch syndrome gene mutation who develop cancer.
Cancer vaccines
Cancer vaccines help the body's immune system recognize and attack cancer cells. Currently, there are no vaccines with FDA approval to treat pancreatic cancer, but several are being studied in clinical trials.
