First line treatment for metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma: looking for the step forward.

Pancreatic cancer is a lethal disease and its prognosis remains dismal. The modest results of existing available treatments in the first line setting reveal the need of new therapeutic strategies. In this year's American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting four remarkable studies were presented regarding this vulnerable group of patients.

Personalizing therapy in advanced non-small cell lung cancer.

The recognition that non-small cell lung cancer (NSCLC) is not a single disease entity, but rather a collection of distinct molecularly driven neoplasms, has permanently shifted the therapeutic landscape of NSCLC to a personalized approach. This personalization of NSCLC therapy is typified by the dramatic response rates seen in EGFR mutant NSCLC when treated with targeted tyrosine kinase inhibitor therapy and in ALK translocation-driven NSCLC when treated with ALK inhibitors. Targeted therapeutic approaches in NSCLC necessitate consideration of more invasive biopsy techniques aimed at providing sufficient tissue for both histological determination and molecular profiling in all patients with stage IV disease both at the time of diagnosis and at the time of disease progression.

New therapeutic strategies in the second line setting of advanced or metastatic pancreatic adenocarcinoma.

Pancreatic cancer is a lethal disease and its prognosis remains dismal. The modest results of existing available treatments in the second line setting reveal the need of new therapeutic strategies. In this year's American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Annual Meeting two remarkable trials and one retrospective analysis were presented regarding this vulnerable group of patients.