Pancreatic Cancer
Sameek Roychowdhury, MD, PhD
The Ohio State University
Summary:
Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of cancer-related death in the United States. Despite current standard first-line therapy with surgery and chemotherapy, the median overall survival for patients with advanced (inoperable or metastatic) pancreatic cancer is less than 1 year. Additionally, there are few targeted therapies identified to benefit these patients. Given the poor outcomes and limited treatment options, novel therapies for pancreatic cancer are needed. Genomic alterations in fibroblast growth factor receptor (FGFR) are known driver mutations in cancer. FGFR targeting agents are approved in bile duct (liver) and bladder cancer but have not been adequately studied in other cancer types. While genomic alterations in FGFR are rare in pancreatic cancer (1%), preliminary evidence suggests treatment with FGFR targeted therapy results in a high response rate and prolonged survival. This phase II telemedicine-enabled study will assess the overall response rate of pemigatinib, an FGFR targeting agent, in patients with advanced pancreatic cancer with FGFR2 gene fusions and other FGFR genomic alterations who progressed on or are intolerant to standard of care therapies. The decentralized manner of the study will allow patients to be consented and screened via telemedicine visits, allow study drug to be directly shipped to patients, allow local lab and imaging collection, and enable management of patients via telemedicine visits in collaboration with local oncologists.
Trial Registration: ClinicalTrials.gov Identifier: NCT06906562