title: Biologic therapies for advanced pancreatic cancer.
abstract: Patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer have poor prognosis and short survival due to lack of effective therapy and aggressiveness of the disease. Pancreatic cancer has widespread chromosomal instability, including a high rate of translocations and deletions. Upregulated EGF signaling and mutation of K-RAS are found in most pancreatic cancers. Therefore, inhibitors that target EGF receptor, K-RAS, RAF, MEK, mTOR, VEGF and PDGF, for example, have been evaluated in patients with pancreatic cancer. Although significant activities of these inhibitors have not been observed in the majority of pancreatic cancer patients, an enormous amount of experience and knowledge has been obtained from recent clinical trials. With a better inhibitor or combination of inhibitors, and improvement in the selection of patients for available inhibitors, better therapy for pancreatic cancer is on the horizon.
authors.affiliation: Department of Medicine, Division of Hematology/Oncology, Lombardi Cancer Center, Georgetown University Medical Center, 3800 Reservoir Road, NW Washington, DC 20007, USA. aiwu.r.he@gunet.georgetown.edu
authors.forename: Aiwu Ruth
authors.initials: AR
authors.lastname: He
authors.forename: Andreas Peter
authors.initials: AP
authors.lastname: Lindenberg
authors.forename: John Lindsay
authors.initials: JL
authors.lastname: Marshall
mesh_terms: D004815:Epidermal Growth Factor / Q000378:metabolism; D006801:Humans; D009362:Neoplasm Metastasis; D009389:Neovascularization, Pathologic; D010190:Pancreatic Neoplasms / Q000098:blood supply / Q000378:metabolism / Q000473:pathology / Q000628:therapy*; D015398:Signal Transduction
chemical_list: D004815:Epidermal Growth Factor