TARGETED RESEARCH: Some methods of chemotherapy can have adverse effects on Asians, which led researchers at the NHRI to focus on a regimen geared toward Asians
Taipei Times
Date: Dec 01, 2020
By:. Lee I-chia / Staff reporter
The National Health Research Institutes’ (NHRI) National Institute of Cancer Research deputy director Liu Ko-jiunn, left, and associate investigator Chiang Nai-jung, center, and NHRI Secretary-General Wu Shiow-ing, right, in Taipei yesterday present a combination chemotherapy regimen specialized for treating Asian patients with pancreatic cancer.
Photo: Lin Hui-chin, Taipei Times
An institute research team’s phase 1 and 2 clinical trials on a chemotherapy regimen of S-1, leucovorin, oxaliplatin and gemcitabine (SLOG) showed promising efficacy and safety in treating patients with metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), National Institute of Cancer Research associate investigator Chiang Nai-jung (姜乃榕) said.
PDAC is a highly fatal disease, and as pancreatic cancers often do not show symptoms early in their onset, they are often only detected after they have grown large or spread outside the pancreas, meaning that 80 to 85 percent of patients are in the advanced stages of the disease at their time of diagnosis, Chiang said.
The overall five-year survival rate of PDAC is lower than 5 percent, and systemic chemotherapy is the standard treatment for patients with unresectable advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer, she said. [FULL STORY]
