Olaparib as a single agent treatment in pre-treated metastatic pancreatic cancer patient harboring BRCA2 mutation: What could we expect?

Abstract

Background: Despite ongoing developments, pancreatic cancer remains one of the most difficult tumors to treat. Even the most effective chemotherapy regimens, only marginally improve the outcome of Pancreatic cancer patients, which rarely exceeds one year. A small subset of Pancreatic cancer patients, carriers of germline variants of BRCA1/2, are clinically relevant as therapeutic targets in pancreatic cancer, both for the first-line and maintenance therapy, as they are more responsive to platinum-based chemotherapy agents and PARP inhibitors. Though, a little is known about the efficacy of olaparib monotherapy in later lines, or in poor responders to platinum-based regimens. Methods: We describe a case of a patient with pancreatic cancer harboring BRCA2 mutation, treated with radical surgery, adjuvant treatment and three different palliative chemotherapy regimens at disease recurrence (FOLFOX in first line with progression-free survival of five months, gemcitabine and nab-paclitaxel in the second line with progression-free survival of six months and FOLFIRI in the third line with progression-free survival of three months) before olaparib off-label treatment. Results: Interestingly, the patient remained 10 months on olaparib treatment, without disease progression, and without any side effects from the treatment. Conclusion: In conclusion, this case highlights the clinically relevant progression-free survival with olaparib treatment in later line and the potential of better health-related quality of life in this small subset of Pancreatic cancer patients.