Meet The Professors: Pancreatic Cancer Edition, 2016 - Video 34Synergistic effect of gemcitabine in combination with other regimens
1:13 minutes.
TRANSCRIPTION:
DR BEKAII-SAAB: There is data that suggests that even more so with a fixed dose rate, gemcitabine, that if you fail 30-minutes gem, then you rechallenge with a combination, either fluoropyrimidine, platinum or, now, a taxane, you will actually see responses even in the metastatic setting. I mean, we had a paper a long time ago that looked at gemcitabine failure, and then patients went to gemcitabine/oxaliplatin, fixed dose rate gemcitabine/oxaliplatin, even within 2 months, and we’ve had about close to 20% response rate. So gemcitabine works best, actually, when you combine it with agents. The way I think about gemcitabine is that on its own it’s a weak drug. Combined, it’s a booster. It’s a booster for fluoropyrimidines. It’s a booster for platinums. And it’s likely a booster for taxanes. And again, going from a 30-minute to 10 mg/m2 per minute may add even additional boost when you combine it with agents. On its own not as much, but when you combine it I think the synergism is even greater. So I do believe that there is that synergism. And I do believe that also changing some of the rate may boost even further the synergism. |