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A28 SCIENCE
Tuesday 17 July 2018

Study finds rare gain for tough-to-treat pancreatic cancer

By LINDSEY TANNER ic cancer , an uncommon in the study from spring
Associated Press disease for which there is 2012 through fall 2016.
CHICAGO (AP) — Patients no screening. Symptoms in- They either received the
with pancreatic cancer cluding fatigue, weight loss four-drug combo through
that hadn’t spread lived and abdomen pain often an IV every two weeks for
substantially longer on a don’t occur until late, after about six months or Gem-
four-drug combo than on the disease has spread. zar three times a month for
a single standard cancer About 330,000 cases are six months. The study was
drug, a rare advance for diagnosed each year funded by philanthropic
a tough-to-treat disease, worldwide, including about groups in France and Can-
researchers reported Mon- 55,000 in the United States. ada. Participants had early
day. About half are diagnosed ductal tumors, the most
The results indicate the after the disease has common kind of pancre-
powerful chemotherapy spread; most die within a atic cancer. Side effects
treatment known as fol- year of diagnosis and only are common for both drugs
firinox will likely become about 6 percent survive for including low blood counts,
standard of care for the five years. fatigue and diarrhea, and
minority of patients whose About 15 percent of pa- they occurred more often
pancreatic cancer is di- tients are candidates for in folfirinox patients. There
agnosed early enough to surgery; generally their dis- was one death in the study
be removed by surgery, ease was detected early in the Gemzar group.
experts not involved in the and has not spread widely Folfirinox and Gemzar are
study said. This undated microscope image from USC via the NIH shows beyond the pancreas. available as generics. Schil-
After an average three pancreatic cancer cells, nuclei in blue, growing as a sphere The new results are “reas- sky said both treatments
years of follow-up, almost encased in membranes, red. suring for a disease where are “pretty inexpensive”
40 percent of the folfirinox Associated Press unfortunately on average since the drugs are avail-
patients were disease-free a cancer specialist at the an “immediately practice- people only live several able as generics. Insur-
compared with about Cancer Institute of Lorraine changing study” and said months rather than several ance typically covers both
20 percent who had the in Vandoeuvre-les-Nancy, it’s the biggest advance years. This is a new stan- for metastatic cancer and
standard drug, Gemzar. France. for pancreatic cancer in 25 dard of care for this illness,” gemcitabine for operable
Overall, almost two-thirds Results were presented years. said Dr. Andrew Epstein, an cancer, and it’s likely it
of folfirinox patients were Monday at an American Folfirinox is already stan- expert at Memorial Sloan would cover folfirinox for
still alive compared with Society of Clinical Oncolo- dard treatment for patients Kettering Cancer Center in operable cancer if guide-
almost half of Gemzar pa- gy conference in Chicago. whose pancreatic cancer New York. lines are revised and it be-
tients, unexpectedly good Dr. Richard Schilsky, the has spread. Nearly 500 patients at 77 comes standard of care,
results, said Dr. Thierry Con- group’s chief medical of- The outlook has been bleak centers in France and which several experts say is
roy, the lead author and ficer, called the research for patients with pancreat- Canada were enrolled expected.q

California meets greenhouse

gas reduction goal years early

CHRISTOPHER WEBER the state’s environment The Air Resources Board
Associated Press and its economy.” has broad authority to
LOS ANGELES (AP) — Cali- Greenhouse gas emis- achieve those goals in the
fornia greenhouse gas sions dropped 2.7 percent nation’s most populous
emissions fell below 1990 in 2016 — the latest year state.
levels, meeting an early available — to about 430 “California set the tough-
target years ahead of million metric tons, the est emissions targets in
schedule and putting the board said. That’s just be- the nation, tracked prog-
state well on its way toward low the 431 million metric ress and delivered results,”
reaching long-term goals tons produced in 1990. Governor Jerry Brown said
to fight climate change, of- California law requires that Wednesday.

In this Dec. 31, 2014, file photo, the snow-capped San Gabriel ficials said Wednesday. emissions return to 1990 lev- The decrease is partly a
Mountains provide a backdrop to the downtown Los Angeles Chairwoman Mary D. Nich- els by 2020 and reach 40 result of California’s in-
skyline as seen from Kenneth Hahn State Recreation Area in ols called it “great news for percent below that marker creased use of renewable
Baldwin Hills. Associated Press the health of Californians, by 2030. power, the board said. So-
lar electricity generation
from rooftop arrays and
power plants jumped 33
percent in 2016, according
to the new data.
Imports of hydroelectric
power shot up 39 per-
cent that year as rains
returned to the Western
United States after years of
drought, officials said.q