An Ohio State clinical trial gave new hope to a pancreatic cancer patient, and his participation could soon do the same for others.

“2017 was a terrible year for me,” says Robert Baioni, whose diagnosis of pancreatic cancer was followed by news that his initial treatment had shown few signs of progress. “My oncologist told me the chemotherapy wasn’t working.”

After beginning treatment near his Cincinnati home, Baioni’s doctor soon suggested a clinical trial underway at The Ohio State University, where the OSUCCC – James’ Sameek Roychowdhury, MD, PhD, was waiting to provide details.

“I went in there feeling kind of hopeless, and by the time my wife and I left, we both felt very optimistic,” Baioni says.

Baioni and Roychowdhury share the full story of the clinical trials that gave the patient a new lease on life on our Cancer-Free World Podcast. Listen via the video player above, or on SoundCloud.

Ultimately, Baioni participated in two trials led by Roychowdhury’s team, both focusing on fibroblast growth factor receptors (FGFRs) — genetic mutations that exist in some pancreatic cancer cells.

“The fibroblast growth factor receptor is a gene or a family of genes, and we've recently learned that they can be found in pancreas cancer,” Roychowdhury says. “When we met Mr. Baioni, we had a new clinical trial that could target FGFR and try to treat the cancer — we could try to target it with a pill that he takes every day to inhibit it, turn it off and prevent the cancer cells from growing.”

Baioni’s cancer remained stable for more than a year, but eventually, scans showed that it had started to progress, metastasizing to affect his lungs.

“It just so happened that Dr. Roychowdhury had the second clinical trial, and that's the one I'm in now.”

The new trial involved another drug that addresses FGFR, but in a more targeted way.

“This time around, the clinical trial is a little more focused,” Roychowdhury says. “We treat patients based on the genetics of their cancers, and I’m very, very impressed with the response we've had — we've seen spots in the lung disappear, almost, and we've seen the blood marker decrease from around 2000 to 40 or so.”

Baioni is one of four pancreatic patients who have been involved in the FGFR trials, which have shown promising results in each case, according to Roychowdhury, who credits clinical research participants with helping to advance this treatment and other groundbreaking cancer therapies.

“Patients are the heroes of cancer research,” he says. “This wouldn't have happened if we didn't have four brave patients enter studies with uncertainty. Now we can help them with the new therapies we're developing, and we're going to reach more patients and hopefully help them as well.”

Baioni doesn’t see himself as a hero, rather a man who was “backed into a corner,” but he’s happy that his participation in the trial may help other patients — and happy that his treatment journey led him to Ohio State and his partnership with Roychowdhury.

“I fully trusted him. It'll be soon be six years since my diagnosis and I'm still here.”