The study is being conducted by researchers at Johns Hopkins University. Mitomycin-C is a member of an important class of DNA damaging agents used to treat cancer.
The trial will enroll patients with pancreatic cancer and who have a mutation in the BRCA2 gene.
Previous studies showed that pancreatic tumors from patients with a BRCA2 gene mutation were approximately 1,000 times more sensitive to mitomycin-C than the tumors from patients without the BRCA2 gene mutation.
If the study confirms this research, then a chemotherapy suited to these cancer patients could be determined.
“If successful, pancreas cancer patients would be tested for BRCA2 mutations before instituting therapy. There is a tremendous opportunity to provide a targeted alternative treatment to patients with pancreatic cancer, something that is desperately needed at present,” said Gregory Critchfield, president of Myriad Genetic Laboratories.
The clinical trial now underway, is designed to determine whether the extreme sensitivity of the pancreatic cancer to mitomycin-C holds true in humans as it did in earlier studies. The study will compare the six month survival rate of treated patients with the current survival rates from standard of care therapy.