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The 2024 phase 2 trial in which an antibody blocking the hormone GDF-15 helped patients with cancer-related wasting, a third of them with pancreatic cancer, gain about two to three kilograms in twelve weeks and become more active.
Groarke and colleagues randomised 187 patients with cancer cachexia and serum GDF-15 of 1,500 pg per millilitre or more (40 percent non-small-cell lung cancer, 32 percent pancreatic cancer, 29 percent colorectal cancer) 1:1:1:1 to ponsegromab 100, 200 or 400 mg or placebo subcutaneously every four weeks for three doses in a 12-week double-blind phase 2 trial. The primary endpoint, change in body weight at 12 weeks, favoured every dose: median between-group differences of 1.22 kg (100 mg), 1.92 kg (200 mg) and 2.81 kg (400 mg; 95 percent credible interval 1.55 to 4.08). Appetite, cachexia symptoms and digitally measured physical activity improved at 400 mg. Adverse events of any cause occurred in 70 percent on ponsegromab and 80 percent on placebo. Funded by Pfizer; NCT05546476.
The first drug to reverse cancer cachexia mechanistically rather than by appetite stimulation, in a disease where weight loss stops chemotherapy being delivered; the phase 3 programme and the question of survival remain.
Shares Embed cachexia treatment in chemotherapy trials: weight, muscle and treatment delivery as co-primary endpoints, Definition and classification of cancer cachexia: an international consensus, Cachexia, toxicity and the limits of the patient, Pancreatic cancer roadmap: from Whipple's operation to gemcitabine, FOLFIRINOX, adjuvant chemotherapy, PARP inhibition, KRAS inhibition, vaccines and the surveillance question and the tag pancreatic-evidence.
Shares Embed cachexia treatment in chemotherapy trials: weight, muscle and treatment delivery as co-primary endpoints, Cachexia, toxicity and the limits of the patient, Pancreatic cancer roadmap: from Whipple's operation to gemcitabine, FOLFIRINOX, adjuvant chemotherapy, PARP inhibition, KRAS inhibition, vaccines and the surveillance question, Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and the tag pancreatic-evidence.
Shares Pancreatic cancer roadmap: from Whipple's operation to gemcitabine, FOLFIRINOX, adjuvant chemotherapy, PARP inhibition, KRAS inhibition, vaccines and the surveillance question, New England Journal of Medicine, Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and the tag pancreatic-evidence.
Shares Pancreatic cancer roadmap: from Whipple's operation to gemcitabine, FOLFIRINOX, adjuvant chemotherapy, PARP inhibition, KRAS inhibition, vaccines and the surveillance question, Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Colorectal cancer and the tag pancreatic-evidence.
Shares Pancreatic cancer roadmap: from Whipple's operation to gemcitabine, FOLFIRINOX, adjuvant chemotherapy, PARP inhibition, KRAS inhibition, vaccines and the surveillance question, New England Journal of Medicine, Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and the tag pancreatic-evidence.
Shares Pancreatic cancer roadmap: from Whipple's operation to gemcitabine, FOLFIRINOX, adjuvant chemotherapy, PARP inhibition, KRAS inhibition, vaccines and the surveillance question, Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and the tag pancreatic-evidence.
Shares Pancreatic cancer roadmap: from Whipple's operation to gemcitabine, FOLFIRINOX, adjuvant chemotherapy, PARP inhibition, KRAS inhibition, vaccines and the surveillance question, Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma, Non-small-cell lung cancer and the tag pancreatic-evidence.
Shares Pancreatic cancer roadmap: from Whipple's operation to gemcitabine, FOLFIRINOX, adjuvant chemotherapy, PARP inhibition, KRAS inhibition, vaccines and the surveillance question, Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma and the tag pancreatic-evidence.