Pancreatic Cancer: Targeted and Immunotherapies
Targeted and Immunotherapies for Pancreatic Cancer
This section covers the following topics:
What is ?
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 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 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 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 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 called .
- Retevmo (selpercatinib) is approved for treatment of of advanced cancers that have a called a RET gene fusion.
- Rozlytrek (entrectinib) is approved for treatment of of advanced cancers that have a 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 known as an mTOR inhibitor that is approved for treating people with advanced pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors.
- Sutent (sunitinib malate) is a that is approved to treat patients with pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors that cannot be removed by surgery or that have metastasized.
What is ?
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 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 that is approved to treat 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 known as . This 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 cancer with a known as microsatellite instability-high (MSI-H) or mismatch repair deficient (). Although this is not common in pancreatic cancer, it is often seen in people with a 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 approval to treat pancreatic cancer, but several are being studied in clinical trials.
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|
Name of Drug |
Cancer |
Line of Treatment |
Indication |
|
Type of Agent |
|
Bizengri (zenocutuzumab) |
Advanced, or unresectable pancreatic cancer |
Second-line or later |
For treatment of advanced, unresectable, or pancreatic cancer which got worse or came back on, or after prior treatment |
NRG1 gene fusion |
Antibody that targets and HER3 protein receptors on cancer cells |
|
Enhertu (fam-trastuzumab-deruxtecan-nxki) |
or unresectable |
Second-line or later |
For adults with unresectable or , solid tumors who have received prior systemic treatment and have no alternative treatment options |
overexpression () |
Antibody-drug conjugate (chemotherapy attached to antibody targeting receptor) |
|
Lynparza () |
pancreatic cancer |
maintenance therapy |
For people whose disease has not progressed on at least 16 weeks of platinum-based chemotherapy |
in or |
Type of known as a |
|
Retevmo (Selpercatinib) |
solid tumors |
Second-line or later |
For treatment in solid tumors for which there are no other treatment options |
RET gene fusion |
known as a kinase inhibitor |
|
Vitrakvi (larotrectinib) |
solid tumors |
Second-line or later |
For treatment in solid tumors for which there are no other treatment options |
NTRK fusion |
known as a kinase inhibitor |
|
Afinitor (everolimus) |
Pancreatic neuro-endocrine tumors (PNET) that have gotten worse |
After progression |
Treatment of pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors that have grown or gotten worse |
No required |
Type of known as an MTOR inhibitor |
|
Sutent (sunitinib malate) |
Unresectable, locally advanced or pancreatic neuro-endocrine tumors (PNET) |
After progression |
For treatment of well-differentiated pancreatic neuroendocrine tumors (pNET) |
No required |
Type of known as a multi-target kinase inhibitor |
|
Jemperli (dostarlimab) |
or unresectable cancers |
Second-line or later |
For treatment of that have progressed after treatment and for which there are no other treatment options |
dMMR/MMR-D (mismatch repair deficient) |
Type of known as an immune checkpoint inhibitor |
|
Keytruda (pembrolizumab) |
or unresectable cancers |
Second-line or later |
For treatment of that have progressed after treatment and for which there are no other treatment options |
|
Type of known as an immune checkpoint inhibitor |
|
Keytruda (pembrolizumab) |
or unresectable cancers |
Second-line or later |
For treatment of that have progressed after treatment and for which there are no other treatment options |
TMB-H (tumor mutational burden-high) |
Type of known as an immune checkpoint inhibitor |