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| |  Gemcitabine Plus Axitinib Increases Survival Compared With Gemcitabine Alone in Patients With Advanced Pancreatic Cancer LONDON -- May 30, 2008 -- A study, recently published in The Lancet, finds that gemcitabine plus axitinib increases overall survival compared with gemcitabine alone in the treatment of pancreatic cancer. Researchers aimed to assess the safety and efficacy of gemcitabine plus axitinib versus gemcitabine alone. Between January and August 2006, 103 patients with unresectable, locally advanced, or metastatic pancreatic cancer were randomly assigned in a 2 to 1 ratio to receive gemcitabine plus axitinib or gemcitabine alone. The primary endpoint was overall survival. Results showed an increased median overall survival of 6.9 months with gemcitabine plus axitinib compared with 5.6 months for gemcitabine alone. Interestingly, the greatest bene€ts on survival were seen in patients with an Eastern Cooperative Oncology Group (ECOG) performance status of 0 to1 and in patients with locally advanced disease at baseline. Gemcitabine plus axitinib showed a similar safety pro€le to gemcitabine alone. These results highlight the importance of good performance status in gemcitabine-based combination treatment of advanced pancreatic cancer. However, in view of the small number of patients in the present study with an ECOG performance status of 2, these data cannot be overinterpreted and should be treated as preliminary, rather than con€rmatory. The small, nonstatistically signi€cant gain in overall survival needs to be assessed in a randomised phase 3 trial. SOURCE: The Lancet
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