Clinical Trial Offers Hope To Cancer Patients With Grim Prognosis 

Pancreatic cancer has almost no early symptoms – so by the time it’s caught it’s often advanced and has sometimes spread.  

The overall five-year survival rate is just 13%, in part because the pancreas is surrounded by a tangle of important vessels that make it hard to remove surgically. It’s also dense and fibrous, so medications have a hard time reaching the tumor. 

“It’s a very tough cancer, and so we’re always looking for advances in care, because we know that even with the standard of care it can be a tough one to be cured from,” Dr. Brian Boone, associate professor of surgical oncology in the WVU Department of Surgery, said.   

Now the West Virginia University Cancer Institute is enrolling pancreatic cancer patients for a promising clinical trial that’s being done for the first time on humans. Boone is leading the trial and says the new technique could sharply improve survival rates.  

It involves a small device that’s implanted laparoscopically and hooked up to a standard chemotherapy pump.   

“The device can deliver chemo right on top of the tumor, and then use an electrical current to help deliver the chemo directly into the pancreas, not enough that the patient could feel but it’s enough that it helps to open up the tumor, open up the cells, and deliver the chemo directly into the into the tumor,” Boone said. “The studies in animals were really encouraging in terms of what it did to the tumor. And led to a much better response than we typically see with with intravenous chemotherapy, and so we’re really hopeful that this could help shrink tumors a lot more.” 

The first phase of the trial will start with two groups of 12 patients with non-metastatic, locally advanced pancreatic cancer.  

“What I really want is a patient who is excited about the potential to participate in something new, because not only do we hope that they get benefit, but they also have the fact that they’re helping other people, they’re helping move the field forward, and helping us understand more about this cancer. And so I think somebody that embraces that concept is  really good for a trial like this,” Boone said.  

Since the medication doesn’t have to go through the whole body, the side effects of chemotherapy are minimized.   

“This is exactly why I do what I do, is, we want to see improvements in this way, and so it’s really exciting for me. And I’m thrilled to be able to do this in West Virginia, where we haven’t always been able to get things like this on the national level,” Boone said. 

He expects the first patients to be fitted with the device in June. 

Click here to learn more about the trial. Patients who’d like to be considered for the trial can click here for more information or contact the WVU Cancer Institute in Morgantown.