Tag Archive for: Pancreatic Cancer

World Cancer Day

This World Cancer Day, Southeast Clinical Oncology Research Consortium (SCOR) is joining organizations around the globe to draw attention to inequities in cancer care everywhere and help “Close the Care Gap.”

In United States and abroad, disparities and discrimination in cancer care treatments and outcomes exist across racial, ethnic, socioeconomic, sexual orientation, and gender identity groups among many others. The goal of World Cancer Day is to raise worldwide awareness, improve education to incite personal, collective and government action to ensure access to life-saving cancer treatment and care is equitable for all. Held every February 4, World Cancer Day was created in 2000 to serve as a global uniting initiative led by the Union for International Cancer Control (UICC).

Each year, hundreds of activities and events take place around the world to serve as a powerful reminder that we all have a role to play in reducing the global impact of cancer. While we live in a time of unprecedented cancer prevention, diagnosis, and treatment, many who seek cancer care hit barriers at every turn.

This year’s World Cancer Day’s theme, “Close the Care Gap”, is all about raising awareness of the equity gap that affects almost everyone in every country, and is costing countless lives. Help SCOR draw awareness to this important initiative and spread the word on social media!

Diversity Lacking in Pancreatic Cancer Trials

From Let’s Win! Pancreatic Cancer
August 6, 2021

Pancreatic cancer trials are no exception. A recent study selected for presentation at the annual Digestive Disease Week 2021 conference clearly shows the magnitude of the problem.

Researchers analyzed data from 8,429 participants in 207 clinical trials in the U.S. for treatments for pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma on ClinicalTrials.gov, the national registry of clinical trial data. Gender was reported in 99 percent of the trials, while race and ethnicity were reported in 49.3 percent and 34.7 percent of trials respectively. In all, 54.8 percent of trial participants were male, and 45.2 percent were female.

According to the data, minorities were substantially underrepresented:

  • Black patients comprised 8.2 percent of trial participants vs. 12.4 percent of cases
  • Hispanic patients represented 6 percent of trial participants vs 8.5 percent of cases
  • Asian or Pacific Islander patients represented 2.4 percent of trial participants vs 3.3 percent of patients
  • American Indians and Alaska Native patients represented 0.3 percent of trial participants compared to 0.4 percent of cases

On the flip side, White patients were overrepresented, making up 84.7 percent of the total trial participants, while they account for 82.3 percent of the total U.S. pancreatic cancer incident cases.

“We knew there was an issue and we knew there were going to be disparities, but when we looked at the numbers we were a little shocked. Anyone who isn’t White is underrepresented in these trials,” says lead investigator Kelly Herremans, M.D., a general surgery resident and surgical oncology research fellow at the University of Florida, Gainesville, who presented the abstract “Trials and tribulations: Diversity and inclusion in pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma clinical trials.”

The hypothesis for the study stemmed from what was being seen in the clinic. “As a surgical oncologist who concentrates his academic and clinical practice on pancreatic cancer, I was seeing mostly White people coming in the door while pancreatic cancer disproportionately affects Black Americans,” explains surgical oncologist Jose Trevino, M.D., Chair of the Division of Surgical Oncology at the VCU School of Medicine and Surgeon-in-Chief at VCU Massey Cancer Center, Virginia Commonwealth University, Richmond.

Trevino admits this contradictory scenario spurred a lot of questions. “I started asking myself if this was a result of socioeconomics, lack of transportation, or that minorities don’t always trust the healthcare system,” he notes. Trevino’s research focuses on pancreatic cancer biology, tumor microenvironment, cancer cachexia, and novel therapeutics and how they relate to pancreatic cancer health equity. “When you see the numbers, the disparity in recruitment is just so stark.”

Asking the Tough Questions

Lack of diversity in clinical trials is often attributed to reluctance to participate due to historic wrongs, such as the infamous 1932 USPHS Syphilis Study at Tuskegee that left Black men untreated for many years to study the long-term impact of syphilis. But research has shown that Black patients are just as willing as White patients to be part of a clinical trial, Herremans says. Plus, Black patients get pancreatic cancer more often, are diagnosed at younger ages, and die sooner, she adds.

Which, of course, begs the question: Why then is there such underrepresentation?

The research team is currently in the process of trying to answer that question. “It’s clearly multifactorial,” Herremans explains. “But one reason may be due to the fact there are so few Black or Hispanic oncologists, for example, which can influence referral patterns.”

Other troubling reasons for the lack of minority enrollment may be due to systemic racism, provider biases that interfere with recruitment as well as study inclusion criteria. Those biases can create impediments to enrollment, such as turning away patients with obesity and diabetes, which are more prevalent in minority populations.

“As doctors who deal with cancer patients every day, we need to start looking at ourselves,” says Trevino. “I’m a surgeon. Dr. Herremans is a surgeon. If something goes wrong in the operating room the first person we look at is ourselves and ask what did we do wrong? We don’t blame the tools or the system because we can’t exclude the possibility that we made a mistake.

“So when you think of it that way, we need to ask ourselves why is the accrual so poor?”

Because of higher rates of diabetes and heart disease among minority patients, they often don’t meet eligibility requirements for trials, Trevino explains. “Many trials are designed for the healthiest of pancreatic cancer patients. That’s going to immediately exclude many minority participants and that just doesn’t make sense.”

Both Trevino and Herremans admit some of the questions they will ask as their research progresses may be uncomfortable. “We’re going to be asking tough questions, and venture into areas that people have stayed away from, and then hopefully find ways to better meet the needs of all cancer patients,” Trevino says. “That’s the way that change occurs.”

Why Diversity Matters

Clinical trials are the foundation of approval for any new cancer chemotherapeutic agent. Without demographic diversity among those who participate in trials, researchers won’t have a clear understanding of how the drug may work in different populations.

Numerous variables, including age, sex, and ethnicity, among others, can influence how an individual may react to a drug. For example, a 2014 study published in the journal Clinical Pharmacology & Therapeutics found marked differences as to how different ethnicities reacted to about 20 percent of drugs approved from 2008 to 2013.

That’s because tumor biology plays a role. “What we do know is that patients with African ancestry have different rates of both somatic and germline mutations when compared to other subgroups,” Herremans explains. “They are going to respond differently to therapies.

“I’m completing a precision medicine fellowship right now, and the bulk of the subject matter is how patient biology impacts therapeutics. Everyone is unique. Patients of different ancestries may metabolize things differently based on enzymes. So there has to be adequate representation of different races and ethnicities in clinical trials because without that we just don’t know how that particular drug is going to act in all patients.”

Both researchers are hopeful there will be change sooner rather than later. “There are regulations that are supposed to help with this problem, and everyone is talking about the issue. I think it’s just time that we all just need to work together, move forward, and make changes that need to be made,” Herremans notes.

Precision medicine will also be a game-changer. “I am Mexican, but that means I’m probably a mix of Portuguese, Spanish, and Indigenous American ancestry,” says Trevino. “We’re all a mix of something. Ideally, we will get to the day when therapies are based on individual patient genomics. We’re not quite there yet, but when we are it will be a beautiful day.”

 

Understanding Clinical Trials

It’s Pancreatic Cancer Clinical Trial Awareness Month, and this short video from the National Pancreas Foundation gives a great overview of what clinical trials are, how they are conducted, and why they are important for patients with diseases like pancreatic cancer. It provides a thorough overview of study design, eligibility criteria, informed consent, safeguards, different phases of clinical trials, and the potential benefits and potential risks of participation. Find out more about cancer clinical trials HERE.

 

Stage IV Survivor’s Ongoing Clinical Trial Success

From Pancreatic Cancer Action Network
By Kristin Reynolds, Jan. 14, 2020

Pancreatic cancer clinical trial participant Earl Groce at his son's wedding

Earl Groce with his wife, Juanita, at their son’s wedding. Groce was best man.

Earl Groce couldn’t believe it when his doctor told him that he had pancreatic cancer.

It was stage IV.

“I’ve always had pretty darn good luck,” he said to the doctor. “I believe it’s just run out.”

Today, four-plus years later, he feels differently.

Earl Groce enjoys time with his family, including three grandchildren.Groce has been a part of a clinical trial since his diagnosis, and the results, he said, “have been tremendous.”

Just recently, his MRI and CT scan (he’s had around 25 of each) revealed continued good results – no sign of cancer. His CA 19-9 levels remain in a normal range – also a good sign.

At 72, Groce has had 98 rounds of chemotherapy through a clinical trial for CPI-613, a targeted therapy aimed at cancer cell metabolism. He receives the test drug in addition to FOLFIRINOX, a combination of three chemotherapeutic agents.

Pancreatic cancer patients who participate in clinical research have better outcomes. Every treatment available today was approved through a clinical trial. The Pancreatic Cancer Action Network (PanCAN) strongly recommends clinical trials at diagnosis and during every treatment decision.

Groce joined the clinical trial as a phase I study participant. The study is currently in phase III.

“If you get a chance to enroll in a clinical trial, please consider it,” is Groce’s message to others fighting pancreatic cancer. “Do it for your sake and the sake of future patients.”

Since the diagnosis, Groce, a grandfather of three (with another one on the way), has watched them “get four years older,” stood beside his son as the best man at his wedding, taken a slew of road trips, bought a condo on an N.C. beach and celebrated 51 years of marriage to his wife Juanita.

“I want to see thousands of pancreatic cancer patients have the same great life after diagnosis that I’ve had,” he said.

He knows his diagnosis is not cause for celebration, but being alive certainly is.

“Nothing changes your attitude like being told, ‘You are going to die pretty soon.’

“So every time someone says to me, ‘Have a good day!’ I respond that EVERY day is a good day.”