Lynparza stalls pancreatic cancer in patients with BRCA mutations: study

CHICAGO (Reuters) – AstraZeneca and Merck & Co’s Lynparza helped patients with advanced pancreatic cancer who carry BRCA gene mutations go longer without their disease worsening than those who received a placebo, according to data from a late-stage clinical trial presented on Sunday.

BRCA mutations are typically linked with breast and ovarian cancers, but occur in other cancers as well.

Lynparza was tested against a placebo as a maintenance therapy in 154 patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer whose tumors had not progressed after chemotherapy.

Those who received the Merck and AstraZeneca drug on average went 7.4 months before their disease began to worsen, a measure known as progression-free survival (PFS). That compared with a median PFS of 3.8 months for placebo, according to data presented at the American College of Clinical Oncology meeting in Chicago.

Patients had been screened for BRCA1 or BRCA2 mutations using Myriad Genetics’ BRACAnalysis CDx test.

For the 6-7% of…