Pancreatic cancer drug cocktail boosts survival

Pancreatic cancer drug cocktail may prolong life

/ istockphoto

(CBS) Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest malignancies there is, killing more than 95 percent who have it within five years of diagnosis.

But an experimental drug "cocktail" can help patients live longer - up to four months longer, according to a French study published in the May 12 issue of the "New England Journal of Medicine." .

Researchers gave 342 pancreatic cancer patients either the cocktail - a combination of four already-approved drugs that doctors call folfirinox - or a commonly used drug called gemcitabine. The doctors found that patients taking folfirinox lived more than 11 months, while those on gemcitabine died within seven months.

That four-month difference might not sound impressive, but given the bleak prognosis for most pancreatic cancer patients, doctors say it's a big deal.

The cocktail has its critics, including Dr. Margaret Tempero, professor of medicine at the University of California San Francisco. She told Medscape Medical News that the folfirinox has lots of side effects - not surprising, since it contains four separate drugs.

But other doctors were excited by the findings.

"This is great news for our patients," Dr. Gauri Varadhachary, associate professor of gastrointestinal oncology at the M.D. Anderson Cancer Center in Houston, told  USA Today. "I see it becoming the standard of care. I see patients requesting it."

Each year in the U.S., there are more than 43,000 new cases of pancreatic cancer, and almost 37,000 deaths.

The National Cancer Institute has more on pancreatic cancer.

[ITSOVERNOW]

Diagnosed in April 2009 with pancreatic cancer, operated on June 2009 - & still here ....Running 5k race next month.

Live every day like its your last - because one day you'll be right.

[sepa2]

Wish you the best. Have to face whatever thrown in life and you seem to do it well.
health - greatest gift, contentment- greatest wealth, faithfulness - greatest relationship. Buddha

[lLolaLane]

Pancreatic cancer is a devastating, cruel disease. My mother-in-law was a vibrant woman who lived a "clean" and pure lifestyle. She was dead three months after her diagnosis, and her wasting away and suffering were overwhelming. I'm glad they're making improvement, but unfortunately, I'm not too convinced of the efficacy of this "new" cocktail. Chemo didn't improve my mother-in-law's life. If anything, it made her last days worse and caused more sickness. She would have been better off with just pain medications in the face of an illness that has no cure and which doesn't respond to treatment.....A terrible, terrible illness.

[Fatesrider]

What I want to know is how much more expensive this drug cocktail is over the "treatment" they have now.

There is a financial disincentive to creating cures for anything. If you cure it, the payment for the cure is one time (or a very short term). If you only treat it, you leave the door open for an indefinite (but usually large) number of repeat purchases of the treatment.

We HAVE to take the profit motive OUT of medicine. People are dying daily because it's more profitable to NOT cure things than it is to cure them.

[askagain]

Be prepared not to have nurses, doctors, or anyone else in the medical field. Nobody works for nothing. The drug company who discovers a medicine that cures illnesses such as aids or cancer will make billions of dollars in profits. The scientist who discovers the cures will be well compensated monetarily and with prestige. The fact is science just doesn't know enough yet to cure many diseases. In the meantime, we treat the symptoms and try to prolong life. Profits drive the research and development. Profits are a major incentive. Do you believe your mechanic or grocer would be in business without the drive for profits?

[goffredo29]

What is it that induces purveyors (e.g., the Cancer Centers of America) to try to blow sunshine up the skirts of those with conditions which are invariably fatal? It's just cruel because it distracts one from the necessary tasks of end of life. At least diseases like mesothelioma and pancreatic cancer, among others, give the sufferer enough time and quality of life to deal with these tasks. This is like religions which want you to engage activities like prayer in the last moments of your life rather than focusing on what's happening to you at those moments. Qui potest capere capiat.

[raibette]

I agree. I recently watched my uncle- a poster child of perfect health- wither from a strapping man, three months from retirement as a decorated OKC police Master Sargent, to a sad wreck. He dies six weeks after the confimed DX of pancreatic cancer. For the last three weeks of his life, despite how very much he was loved, we prayed for his death. The pain was too much, he was so sick. Four more months of the 'life' he had with cancer seems more like a cruel torture than something to brag about.

[askagain]

Everyone is different. My mother, who never smoked, died at age 64 from lung cancer. My mother had such a zest for life, she wouldn't cut flowers in her garden because she felt it would shorten their life. My mother so much wanted to live no matter how much she suffered from the dusease and the side effects of chemo and radiation therapy. No matter how sick she was, my mother counted every day as a blessing.