Research
November 30, 2017 • 2 Min

Testing an Experimental Combination of Drugs

Abstract image of round and oval shapes in reds, pinks, whites, and light blues

Surian Soosay; Flickr

Can two new drugs, including one immunotherapy agent, control advanced pancreatic and other cancers?

Researchers are testing a treatment regimen of two experimental drugs, to see if the combination can control or treat advanced pancreatic cancer, non-small cell lung cancer, and colorectal cancer with a mismatch repair defect.

A Pair of Newer Treatments

AZD9150 is an antisense oligonucleotide (ASO) inhibitor. ASO inhibitors are synthetic pieces of either DNA or RNA designed to target specific proteins by suppressing their production. AZD9150 blocks the production of the STAT3 protein, which is known to promote the transformation of healthy cells into cancer cells.

MEDI4736 (durvalumab) is a checkpoint inhibitor, a type of drug that blocks a negative regulator of T cell activation. In other words, it reactivates T cells, critical players of the immune system, to attack the tumor. MEDI4736 is approved for use in advanced cancers of the bladder and urinary system that have been treated with platinum-based drugs.

Does the Experimental Combination Work?

All participants will receive the drugs being studied. The treatment is being tested for ability to control the cancers in the study. During and after the trial all participants will be evaluated through scans and blood work for their response to the treatment—whether the cancer is controlled and/or responds to the drugs.

We encourage you to consult your physicians for clinical trials that may be right for you. The website ClinicalTrials.gov provides more details about this trial as well as many others. You can visit the EmergingMed Trial Finder for a listing of all active pancreatic cancer clinical trials.

This trial is active but is no longer recruiting new participants.

Help me find a pancreatic cancer expert near me.

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