Immuno-oncology (or immunotherapy) and precision medicine are the newest developments in the treatment of advanced cancer. Immuno-oncology helps to restore the body’s immune system and improves outcomes when administered alone or in combination with chemotherapy.
Immunotherapy is the use of medicines to stimulate a person’s own immune system to recognize and destroy cancer cells more effectively. Certain types of immunotherapy can be used to treat pancreatic cancer.
Immune checkpoint inhibitors
Treatments callec checkpoint inhibitors can be used for people whose pancreatic cancer cells have tested positive for specific gene changes, such as a high level of microsatellite instability (MSI-H), or changes in one of the mismatch repair (MMR) genes.
The drugs are used for people whose cancer starts growing again after chemotherapy. They might also be used to treat people whose cancer can’t be removed with surgery, has come back (recurred) after treatment, or has spread to other parts of the body (metastasized).
PD-1 inhibitor
- Pembrolizumab (Keytruda)
EGFR inhibitor
- Erlotinib (Tarceva)
PARP inhibitor
In a small number of pancreatic cancers, the cells have changes in one of the BRCA genes (BRCA1 or BRCA2). Changes in one of these genes can sometimes lead to cancer.
- Olaparib (Lynparza)
NTRK inhibitors
- Entrectinib (Rozlytrek)
- Larotrectinib (Vitrakvi)