Retrospective Study on the Efficacy and Tolerability of Liposomal Irinotecan

Patients with pancreatic cancer have a poor prognosis with a 5-years survival of only 1-2%. This arises from the fact that it is typically diagnosed late, when curative resection is impossible. These patients are thus restricted to chemotherapy, with gemcitabine-based therapies being the standard of care for patients with locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (mPDAC). However, even after second or subsequent lines of therapy, disease progression is inevitable. Therefore, the need for new treatment options is high. Recently, the advantage of using nanoliposomal irinotecan (Onivyde®) in combination with 5-fluorouracil and leucovorin (5-FU/LV) over the use of 5-FU/LV alone was demonstrated in a phase-3 randomized clinical trial (NAPOLI-1 trial). As this study showed significant improvement on overall survival, progression-free survival, time to treatment failure, overall response rate and tumor marker CA19-9 response, on October 14 2016 this therapy was approved by the EMA to be used for patients with mPDAC previously treated with gemcitabine-based therapy. While randomized clinical trials, like the NAPOLI-1 trial, are considered the reference standard for comparing the efficacy and safety of treatments, these studies do not always reflect the everyday clinical practice. Therefore, the aim of this study is to evaluate the efficacy and safety of Onivyde® in real-life practice in Belgium. This information would be very valuable to determine the value of the drug and improve the knowledge of the actual use of Onivyde® after marketing authorization.