Celgene's Abraxane increases survival in pancreatic cancer

Celgene Corp said its Abraxane drug helped patients with advanced pancreatic cancer live an average of two months longer than chemotherapy and significantly increased the percentage of those who survived with the disease for up to two years, according to a late-stage study.

Based on the results, Celgene said it expects to file applications in the United States and Europe in the first half of this year seeking approval for the use of Abraxane for pancreatic cancer.

Celgene previously said Abraxane met the main survival goals of the study of 861 patients who had not previously been treated for their cancer. It released the details on Tuesday ahead of a medical meeting where the study will be presented this week.

Patients who received Abraxane in combination with the chemotherapy agent gemcitabine had a median overall survival of 8.5 months, compared with 6.7 months for patients who received standard therapy of gemcitabine alone. The result was deemed to be statistically significant, researchers said.

"It's such a tough disease that moving the needle on survival at all is a major accomplishment," Dr. Daniel Von Hoff, the study's lead investigator, said in a telephone interview.

"It's been a pretty tough, discouraging area," he said, adding that the overwhelming majority of studies of similar patients have failed to improve survival at all.

Abraxane plus gemcitabine demonstrated a 59 percent increase in one-year survival - 35 percent vs 22 percent - and doubled the rate of survival at two years from the start of treatment, with 9 percent still alive compared with 4 percent for gemcitabine alone.

One-, five- and ten-year survival statistics for pancreatic cancer by age and trends over time are presented here. There are also data by geography and by stage at diagnosis. The ICD code for pancreatic cancer is ICD-10 C25.

The statistics on these pages give an overall picture of survival. Unless otherwise stated, the statistics include all adults diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, at all ages, stages and co-morbidities. The survival time experienced by an individual patient may be much higher or lower, depending on specific patient and tumour characteristics. If you are a patient, you will probably find our CancerHelp pages more relevant and useful.

The latest survival statistics available for pancreatic cancer in England are 2005-2009 (followed up to 2010).

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In Europe

The most recent five-year survival data for 1995-1999 show England, Scotland and Northern Ireland are slightly below the average for Europe (5%), while Wales is around the European average. Across the European countries, five-year survival rates range from 2% to 9%. However, as with international incidence estimates, differing data collection practices throughout Europe may contribute to the ranking of individual countries.