19 June 2018 - - Results of a study funded by the Woodbury, New York-based pancreatic research funding organization Lustgarten Foundation and the Hale Center for Pancreatic Cancer Research at Dana-Farber Cancer Institute has been published in Cancer Discovery, the organization said.
The study shows that genomic analyses of metastatic pancreatic cancers suggest that approximately one third of pancreatic cancer patients may have a genomic alteration that could impact treatment decisions and guide doctors to choose a specific therapy for a personalized medicine approach.
The study describes a metastatic tumor biopsy protocol at Dana-Farber, called PancSeq, which was implemented in order to perform whole exome sequencing and RNA-sequencing for patients with advanced pancreatic cancer. Additionally, both tumor DNA and inherited DNA were sequenced for all patients.
Of patients within this cohort, 48% had cancers with at least one genomic alteration that could potentially be eligible for current clinical trials or support off-label usage of a drug approved for another indication.
A total of 24% of patients enrolled in the PancSeq study were treated with an experimental agent, either through enrollment into a clinical trial or through off-label use of an approved agent.
Overall, 30% of enrolled patients had a change in their clinical care as a result of their genomic data, including the recommendation for some patients that family members consider genetic testing due to a potential inherited predisposition to pancreatic cancer.
The Lustgarten Foundation is a private foundation dedicated to funding pancreatic cancer research.
The Foundation supports research to find a cure for pancreatic cancer, facilitates dialogue within the medical and scientific community, and educates the public about the disease through awareness campaigns and fundraising events. Since its inception, it has directed USD 154m to research.