Dr. Bekaii-Saab on POLO Trial Results in Pancreatic Cancer

Tanios Bekaii-Saab, MD, FACP, medical oncologist, medical director, Cancer Clinical Research Office, vice chair and section chief, Medical Oncology, Department of Internal Medicine, Mayo Clinic, discusses the clinical implications of the results of the phase III POLO trial in metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Patients with BRCA1/2 mutations are very sensitive to platinum-based therapy, explains Bekaii-Saab. However, patients who are exposed to long-term platinum-based chemotherapy develop neuropathy, he says. In the POLO trial, patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer, after ≥16 weeks of first-line platinum-based chemotherapy, received either olaparib (Lynparza) or placebo as a maintenance treatment after the last chemotherapy dose.

The primary endpoint of the study was progression-free survival (PFS) and the secondary endpoint was overall survival (OS). The median PFS by investigator assessment for olaparib was 13.2 months versus 9.2 months for placebo. At an interim analysis, the OS was 18.9 months for olaparib and 18.1 months for placebo. This study demonstrates PARP inhibitors have a role in the maintenance setting of this disease, according to Bekaii-Saab.