OncoMed Pharmaceuticals, Inc. has announced data from its ongoing Phase Ib clinical trial of demcizumab in patients with first-line Stage IV pancreatic cancer. These are the first reported data from the Phase Ib study of demcizumab with gemcitabine to include the addition of Abaxane (nab-paclitaxel). Demcizumab is part of OncoMed's collaboration with Celgene Corporation.

Demcizumab was generally well tolerated in combination with both gemcitabine and Abraxane with fatigue, hypertension, nausea and vomiting being the most common drug-related toxicities. No demcizumab-related reversible cardiotoxicity events have occurred with the implementation of regular monitoring, a truncated treatment approach and cardioprotective medication, if indicated. The combination of gemcitabine with or without Abraxane did not appear to influence the pharmacokinetics of demcizumab.

Three of the six (50%) evaluable patients who received the demcizumab/gemcitabine/Abraxane combination had partial responses as measured by RECIST and two patients had stable disease resulting in a clinical benefit rate of 83%.