AZ/Merck & Co’s Lynparza POLO Study ‘Practice Changing’ For Pancreatic Cancer Subgroup

 
• By Alex Shimmings
  
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A near doubling of progression-free survival in the POLO study of AstraZeneca/Merck & Co’s Lynparza could usher in a new era of targeted therapy for metastatic pancreatic patients with germline BRCA mutations, and open up a third indication for the leading PARP inhibitor.

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POLO pancreatic cancer data is ASCO highlight • Source: Alex Shimmings

AstraZeneca PLC/Merck & Co. Inc.’s PARP inhibitor Lynparza nearly doubled progression-free survival in patients with germline BRCA-mutated (gBRCAm) metastatic pancreatic cancer, according to the full results of the Phase III POLO study. The data were hailed by experts as “practice changing” at the American Society of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago, where they were presented in a plenary session on 2 June.

“Metastatic pancreatic cancer is a dismal disease,” POLO principal investigator Hedy Kindler, University of Chicago, said during the late-breaking abstract...

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