Introduction: Pancreatic cancer (PC) remains a disease with a dismal prognosis. Despite accounting for only 3% of cancer diagnosis, 7% of all cancer deaths in the United States are from PC. This is explained by many being diagnosed with late-stage disease and the cancer's resistance to chemotherapy. Since 1996 there have only been two upfront regimens found to be superior to gemcitabine, FOLFIRINOX (5-fluorouracil/leucovorin and oxaliplatin) and gemcitabine plus nab-paclitaxel. Areas covered: Clinical pharmacology of newer agents that are either approved or being investigated in the management of PC. Knowledge of their pharmacokinetics, pharmacodynamics, and pharmacogenetics can be used to predict outcomes for specific patient populations. Drugs discussed include nanoliposomal irinotecan, pegvorhyaluronidase alfa, poly (ADP-ribose) polymerase enzyme inhibitors, larotrectinib, and napabucasin. Expert opinion: PC is a heterogeneous disease and outcomes are likely to improve as better predictive models of an individual's response to different therapies are developed. This may be best accomplished through phase 0 studies and the use of tumor organoid models grown from initial biopsies or resected tissue. The genetic and physical makeup of the tumor as well as the functional characterization in patient-derived organoids (PDOs), can help guide which agents may be most efficacious or toxic.
Keywords: Chemotherapy; genomic profile; genomics; metabolism; metabolites; molecular pancreatic pathogenesis; pancreatic cancer pharmacogenomics; pancreatic exocrine cancer; pharmacodynamics; pharmacokinetics; targeted therapy.