Pancreatic cancer used to be a death sentence for many, but with new medication it is more treatable. Ongoing research is testing how effective different drug combinations are at treating the disease.
Phil Zeblisky was diagnosed with Stage IV pancreatic cancer last year.
“I was on treatment for about five months,” he said.
After chemotherapy with an experimental three-drug combination, his cancer is no longer detectable.
“I’m feeling a lot better today," Zeblisky said. "I’m back at work part-time.”
Dr. Erkut Borazanci is a researcher at the Virginia G. Piper Cancer Center in Scottsdale. He’s working on a clinical trial, which includes nine patients in Arizona, to test a new drug combination for patients with similar gene repair problems.
“We have come up with more and more treatment options and we are better refining these treatment options by looking at the individual’s tumor,” he said.
The targeted care Borazanci is referring to is a growing trend in cancer treatment.
Dr. Michael Roberts has been a medical oncologist for 29 years. He said in that time, medication for pancreatic cancer has changed a lot.
“It’s a shift to individualizing the treatment to fit that patient’s tumor at that time,” Roberts said.
He said treatments are shifting from cancer specific to tumor specific. Zeblisky’s tumor is no longer detectable a year after his initial diagnosis. He said there is hope.
“There is going to have to be a lot of cures," he said. "You may have one that will work for one person and not for another person.”
The results will be published in the next few months, but the drug combination will go through more testing before it can be approved by the Food and Drug Administration.
EDITOR'S NOTE: This article has been modified to reflect the spelling of Phil Zeblisky's name.
Updated 2/4/2015 at 9:53 a.m.