title: State of the art biological therapies in pancreatic cancer.
abstract: Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is one of the most lethal malignancies with a five-year survival rate of approximately 5%. Several target agents have been tested in PDAC, but almost all have failed to demonstrate efficacy in late phase clinical trials, despite the better understanding of PDAC molecular biology generated by large cancer sequencing initiatives in the past decade. Eroltinib (a small-molecule tyrosine-kinase inhibitor of epidermal growth factor receptor) plus gemcitabine is the only schedule with a biological agent approved for advanced pancreatic cancer, but it has resulted in a very modest survival benefit in unselected patients. In our work, we report a summary of the main clinical trials (closed and ongoing) that refer to biological therapy evaluation in pancreatic cancer treatment.
authors.affiliation: Mariacristina Di Marco, Elisa Grassi, Sandra Durante, Silvia Vecchiarelli, Andrea Palloni, Marina Macchini, Guido Biasco, Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, University of Bologna, Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, 40138 Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Mariacristina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Di Marco
authors.affiliation: Mariacristina Di Marco, Elisa Grassi, Sandra Durante, Silvia Vecchiarelli, Andrea Palloni, Marina Macchini, Guido Biasco, Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, University of Bologna, Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, 40138 Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Elisa
authors.initials: E
authors.lastname: Grassi
authors.affiliation: Mariacristina Di Marco, Elisa Grassi, Sandra Durante, Silvia Vecchiarelli, Andrea Palloni, Marina Macchini, Guido Biasco, Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, University of Bologna, Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, 40138 Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Sandra
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Durante
authors.affiliation: Mariacristina Di Marco, Elisa Grassi, Sandra Durante, Silvia Vecchiarelli, Andrea Palloni, Marina Macchini, Guido Biasco, Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, University of Bologna, Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, 40138 Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Silvia
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Vecchiarelli
authors.affiliation: Mariacristina Di Marco, Elisa Grassi, Sandra Durante, Silvia Vecchiarelli, Andrea Palloni, Marina Macchini, Guido Biasco, Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, University of Bologna, Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, 40138 Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Andrea
authors.initials: A
authors.lastname: Palloni
authors.affiliation: Mariacristina Di Marco, Elisa Grassi, Sandra Durante, Silvia Vecchiarelli, Andrea Palloni, Marina Macchini, Guido Biasco, Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, University of Bologna, Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, 40138 Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Marina
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Macchini
authors.affiliation: Mariacristina Di Marco, Elisa Grassi, Sandra Durante, Silvia Vecchiarelli, Andrea Palloni, Marina Macchini, Guido Biasco, Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, University of Bologna, Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, 40138 Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Casadei
authors.affiliation: Mariacristina Di Marco, Elisa Grassi, Sandra Durante, Silvia Vecchiarelli, Andrea Palloni, Marina Macchini, Guido Biasco, Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, University of Bologna, Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, 40138 Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Claudio
authors.initials: C
authors.lastname: Ricci
authors.affiliation: Mariacristina Di Marco, Elisa Grassi, Sandra Durante, Silvia Vecchiarelli, Andrea Palloni, Marina Macchini, Guido Biasco, Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, University of Bologna, Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, 40138 Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Riccardo
authors.initials: R
authors.lastname: Panzacchi
authors.affiliation: Mariacristina Di Marco, Elisa Grassi, Sandra Durante, Silvia Vecchiarelli, Andrea Palloni, Marina Macchini, Guido Biasco, Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, University of Bologna, Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, 40138 Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Donatella
authors.initials: D
authors.lastname: Santini
authors.affiliation: Mariacristina Di Marco, Elisa Grassi, Sandra Durante, Silvia Vecchiarelli, Andrea Palloni, Marina Macchini, Guido Biasco, Department of Experimental, Diagnostic and Specialty Medicine, University of Bologna, Sant'Orsola-Malpighi Hospital, 40138 Bologna, Italy.
authors.forename: Guido
authors.initials: G
authors.lastname: Biasco
keywords: Antiangiogenic therapies; Embryonic pathway inhibitors; Epidermal growth factor receptor inhibitors; Molecular characterization; Pancreatic cancer; Targeted therapy