A study published by Dr. Patricia Sancho and her lab suggests a new way that scientists could treat pancreatic cancer. The team discovered how this deadly cancer manages to adapt and gain the energy needed to grow and spread across the body. Excitingly they have also found a possible drug that could reverse this process and stop pancreatic cancer from spreading.
We can only say a big THANK YOU. We were a very young group full of ideas but no funds to prove them right and the support from Worldwide Cancer Research revolutionised our world. We are extremely happy we can give back our work and hopefully impact future pancreatic cancer patients.
Why do we need new pancreatic cancer cures?
Pancreatic Ductal Adenocarcinoma (PDAC) is the most common form of pancreatic cancer. Unfortunately, due to a combination of factors such as late diagnosis and its fast-growing nature, PDAC is also one of the most deadly cancers, and many patients do not survive the first year after diagnosis.
Did you know?
Tumours have their own internal environments filled with nutrients that cancer cells can use to grow and move.
In PDAC this ‘microenvironment’ is under stress due to surrounding tissue, so there are less nutrients and cells do not have the space to grow. This seems like it would stop the cancer, but unfortunately PDAC is super adaptive and has found a way to get around this. PDAC cells can create their own energy that they use to escape the tumour and travel to more comfortable environments, creating secondary tumours.
This adaptability is one of the main reasons PDAC is so fast-spreading and difficult to treat.
Dr Sancho’s team have discovered the specific process that, when activated, allows PDAC cells to adapt to environmental stress within the tumour and create their own energy.
This process is the driver that means cells can ‘mobilise’ and travel to form secondary tumours around the body, called metastasis.
What did our researchers discover?
As well as uncovering this process, our team of Curestarter scientists was also able to pinpoint an important part of it, setting it as a possible target.
Target set, the team then began testing an experimental drug and found it was able to intercept and block the energy producing process. Researchers found that as a result of this testing, there was a lower number of documented metastases (cancer spreading around the body).
What could this mean for patients in the future?
There is now the possibility of taking this drug forward to clinical trials, with the final goal being to be able to offer it to patients as a new treatment option to stop their cancer from spreading.
This game-changing drug would prevent or slow down PDAC cells from travelling through the body, and forming metastases - something that is crucial for improving patient survival rates, as it gives patients more time and opens up more specific treatment options.
Every step like this that we are able to take forward towards better understanding cancer and creating more treatment options, impacts everyone - from researchers, to clinicians, and most importantly the millions of people around the world affected by cancer.
New breakthroughs such as Dr Sancho's and her team’s are proof that progress is possible. Proof that one day new and improved treatments won’t just be possible, but expected. None of this would be possible without our Curestarters - like you.
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