Dr. Ocean on the Toxicities With SM-88 in Metastatic Pancreatic Cancer

Allyson J. Ocean, MD, associate professor of clinical medicine at Weill Cornell Medicine, discusses her experiences with SM-88 in patients with metastatic pancreatic cancer.

Ocean explains that the toxicity profile associated with SM-88, which consists of a tyrosine derivative (D,L-alpha-metyrosine), an mTOR inhibitor (sirolimus), a CYP3a4 inducer (phenytoin), and an oxidative stress catalyst (methoxsalen), is very favorable. Additionally, she adds that she has had a couple of patients who, after receiving treatment with SM-88, explained that they physically felt better as well as more energetic than they had on chemotherapy treatments. The toxicities seen with SM-88 are completely different than those of chemotherapy.

In a study of SM-88 presented at the 2019 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium, 32 patients (84.2%) experienced a treatment-emergent adverse event (AE) related to SM-88, with 16.2% of AEs considered to be possibly related to study regimen. One patient who was treated with 460 mg twice daily of D,L-metyrosine had 2 AEs, which were rash and arthralgia, that were considered to be dose-limiting toxicities. However, patients resumed treatment after successful management.

View more from the 2019 Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium