Use of Meriva as complementary therapy of locally advanced or metastatic pancreatic cancer (PC) with gemcitabine (GEM).

Abstract

e15696Background: GEM still represents one of the mostly adopted treatments for PC. Combination treatments provided some improvement in response rate (RR) and progression free survival (PFS), although almost invariably associated to increased toxicity. Aiming to find a complementary therapy to GEM in advanced PC, we tested a preparation of curcumin complexed with phospholipids (Meriva) to increase bioavailability. Curcumin has antinflammatory, antioxidant and potential antitumor properties, seemingly, descending from the activation of nuclear factor Nrf2 and inhibition of NFkB. From this pattern of nutraceutical effects of Curcumin, Meriva emerges as a good candidate for complementary therapy, while also improving quality of life (QoL). Methods: This was a single centre, single arm prospective phase II trial. Inclusion criteria were: previously untreated patients with histologically confirmed metastatic or locally advanced PC, ECOG performance status (PS) of 0-2, adequate organ function and written inform...