New drug hope for pancreatic cancer

A commonly used chemotherapy drug may offer a new lifeline to sufferers of one of the most deadly cancers, research has shown.

Trial results suggest that the drug 5-fluorouracil (5-FU) is an effective alternative for pancreatic cancer patients who fail to respond to standard treatment.

They also raise hopes of providing better therapy by combining the two drugs.

A study now under way is looking at the effect of prescribing a pill version of 5-FU with the more expensive standard chemotherapy drug, gemcitabine.

5-FU is currently used to treat a wide range of cancers including those affecting the bowel, breast and ovaries.

Almost 8,000 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year in the UK.

The disease is one of the hardest cancers to treat, and only around 3% of patients survive more than five years.

The new findings are published in the Journal of the American Medical Association (Jama).

Study leader Professor John Neoptolemos, director of the Liverpool Cancer Research UK Centre based at the University of Liverpool, said: "Until now the best way to treat pancreatic cancer has been unclear. But these results are the first to directly compare these two chemotherapies and show undoubtedly that they are both as effective as each other.

"Importantly this means patients now have a backup in case their cancer fails to respond to the first line of treatment. A new trial investigating whether combining these two treatments could be even more effective and prolong life is already under way and we look forward to seeing the result."