Article Text
PDF
Abstract
A previously healthy man in his 60s was diagnosed with a rare histological subtype of pancreatic cancer, adenosquamous carcinoma. After somatic mutation profiling, it was found that the tumour had microsatellite instability status high and a high tumour mutational burden. The patient was started on combination therapy with gemcitabine, nab-paclitaxel and pembrolizumab. Tumour size and biomarkers showed a dramatic response eventually leading to the patient being transitioned to maintenance therapy with pembrolizumab. The patient has demonstrated continued response since the start of the treatment. This is the first report in the literature showing a sustained response in this type of neoplasm that was treated with a checkpoint inhibitor, and thus adds to the evidence supporting universal somatic testing in all pancreatic cancers for a tailored approach to therapy.
- Pancreatic cancer
- Chemotherapy
Statistics from Altmetric.com
Footnotes
Twitter @Rparede_MD
Contributors The authors confirm contribution to the paper as follows: study conception and design—RPdlF and MLP; literature search and data collection—RPdlF; analysis and interpretation of results—RPdlF, JWD and MLP; patient interview—RPdlF and JWD; draft manuscript preparation—RPdlF and JWD. All authors reviewed the results and approved the final version of the manuscript.
Funding MLP receives funding from the National Cancer Institute (K08CA248473).
Case reports provide a valuable learning resource for the scientific community and can indicate areas of interest for future research. They should not be used in isolation to guide treatment choices or public health policy.
Competing interests MLP—none related to the submitted work; outside the submitted work, institutional research funding from Nucana, Taiho Oncology, Merck, BeiGene and Berg.
Provenance and peer review Not commissioned; externally peer reviewed.