The ‘Behind the Headlines’ service from NHS Choices has featured a quality assessment of press reports of an animal study that combined gemcitabine with an experimental chemical called MRK003 to provide “a new weapon against pancreatic cancer” (reported by the BBC, February 21st 2012).

The researchers found that MRK003 could reduce the expression of certain pancreatic cancer markers. When given alone, MRK003 had no effect on the survival of pancreatic cancer model, but when given in combination with gemcitabine the median survival time of the mice was significantly increased, from nine days when given a placebo to 26 days when given MRK003 and gemcitabine in combination (p=0.002). The researchers found that combination treatment promotes tumour cell death and suppresses tumour growth.

The assessment discusses the report, the research it was based on, and comes to the following conclusions:

“These are exciting early results in an area with a clear need for better treatments. However, it will take the results of further clinical trials, such as the phase I/II clinical trial currently underway, to tell how successful or safe this regime is for treating patients”.