If you have cancer, it is as unique as your fingerprint. We offer a functional profiling ANALYSIS that measures, in the laboratory, how your pancreatic cancer cells respond to various drugs BEFORE you receive them.
This test helps select the most effective and least toxic drug regimen for your pancreatic cancer.
It's the 4th leading cause of cancer death in women and the 5th leading cause of cancer death in men. It is often viewed by doctors and patients alike as a veritable death sentence. But even with advanced Stage 4 pancreatic cancer, it doesn't have to be.
Challenges
with
Treatment
Cancers arising in the pancreas may not exhibit any noticeable symptoms in the early stage. Because of this, pancreatic cancer is typically diagnosed at a late stage making treatment difficult and prognosis poor.
Surgery is the most effective way to manage pancreatic cancers if the disease remains confined to the pancreas (Stage I). If the disease has progressed, then radiation or combinations of radiation plus chemotherapy are typically employed.
Unfortunately, pancreatic cancers are often advanced when first diagnosed and the only option left is chemotherapy. Despite years of study, there are no curative therapies for metastatic pancreatic cancer.
Nonetheless, some patients have dramatic and durable benefit from chemotherapy.
probable
causes
Oncogenes (genes that are mutated or expressed) such as K-RAS, p16, or p53 BRCA mutations (found in patients with family history of breast and ovarian cancer).
Mismatch repair deficiencies associated with Lynch syndrome
Life style and dietary associations including cigarette smoking, alcohol consumption, processed food intake and obesity
Treatment
options
Surgical Procedures
While radical surgery is potentially curative, only a minority of patients are candidates. Patients with advanced, metastatic pancreatic cancer spread to the liver or the abdominal cavity will require systemic therapy.
Most common chemotherapy drugs:
5-FU/leucovorin
Platins (Cisplatin or Oxaliplatin)
Taxanes (Taxol, Docetaxel, Abraxand)
Irinotecan
Gemcitabine
Capecitabine (oral formulation of 5FU)
Most common chemotherapy combinations:
FOLFIRINOX (oxaliplatin & irinotecan & 5-fluorouracil (5-FU)/leucovorin)
Gemcitabine & Nab-Paclitaxel (Abraxane)
Gemcitabine & Erlotinib
Gemcitabine & Cisplatin
GTX (gemcitabine & docetaxel & capecitabine)
5FU/leucovorin & Capecitabine
5FU/leucovorin & Oxalilatin
Targeted Therapies Available:
Erlotinib (Tarceva)
What Our Research Has Shown
We find that advanced metastatic pancreatic cancer patients fall into several broad categories:
1) The truly drug sensitive patients who will respond to numerous treatments and can benefit from the least toxic drug combinations.
2) A small minority of patients who are sensitive to "targeted agents" like Erlotinib (Tarceva)
3) A large group of patients have distinct sensitivity to one of the three standard drug regimens used in this disease: Platinum-based (GemOx, Cisplatin & Gemcitabine), Taxane-based (GTX, Abraxane/Gemcitabine), or Irinotecan-based (FOLFIRINOX, FOLFIRI)
4) A final group of patients are resistant to standard chemotherapeutics and should be considered for experimental therapies as early as possible.
Without testing, how do you know which group you may be in?