Assessment Of Stromal Response To Nab-Paclitaxel In Combination With Gemcitabine In Pancreatic Cancer

Targeting tumor stroma is emerging as a strategic approach for pancreatic cancer treatment. Actually, one of the most interesting characteristics of pancreatic cancer is the dense fibrotic stroma surrounding tumor cells. Moreover, pancreatic cancer stroma seems to express a specific protein profile different from tumor cells. For example, secreted protein rich in cysteine (SPARC) is overexpressed in pancreatic tumor stroma fibroblast and downregulated in tumor cells. This characteristic is associated with poor clinical outcome. Nab-paclitaxel, an albumin bound nano formulation of paclitaxel that targets SPARC, decreases tumor stroma density. Such effect improves drug delivery, and enhances both, nab-paclitaxel and gemcitabine, antitumor activity in nude mouse models. Based on this pre-clinical data the investigators designed a clinical trial of nab-paclitaxel in combination with gemcitabine as neo-adjuvant treatment for pancreatic cancer patients. Fifteen, SPARC positive patients, will be enrolled in the study and treated with abraxane in combination with gemcitabine. This is a pilot study which primary end point is evaluating the effect of Abraxane in combination with gemcitabine on tumor stroma, and the secondary end-point is correlating these changing with treatment activity.