Scientists have come one step closer to curing pancreatic cancer after a new drug trial showed evidence of reversing the disease.
A research team from the Spanish National Cancer Research Centre (CNIO) have developed an experimental triple-drug therapy that completely eliminated pancreatic tumours in mice.
The findings of their study, published in medical journal PNAS, explained how the new therapy targets a mutation of the KRAS gene which is seen in about 90 per cent of pancreatic cancers.
The mutated gene, known scientifically as an oncogene, causes cells to grow and divide uncontrollably, leading to cancer.
The KRAS oncogene has historically proved to be hard to treat, with an existing treatment which blocks it from replicating – and passing on on more mutated cells -quickly being ‘outwitted’.
However, the new treatment, using three different drugs, blocks three of the cancer’s ‘survival routes’ simultaneously, makes it harder for tumours to develop, and resist treatment.
This suggests that pancreatic cancer may need combination treatments, not single drugs.
The researchers, led by Dr Mariano Barbacid, tested the approach on three types of laboratory mice; ones who had been genetically engineered to be born with the cancer-causing genes; ones who had human pancreatic cancer tissue implanted into their pancreas; and ones who had had pancreatic cancer cells surgically implanted directly into their pancreas.
The pancreas aids digestion and produces hormones
The triple treatment eliminated cancer cells in all of the mouse models, leading the research team to conclude that the results are strong enough to directly inform new human clinical trials.
They wrote in the study: ‘These studies open a path to designing new combination therapies that can improve survival for patients with pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma [the most common pancreatic cancer].
‘These results point the way for developing new clinical trials.’
However, there are limitations; firstly the mice were generally young and otherwise healthy, unlike many human patients, and the results were seen in animals, not humans,
However, the scientists still regard their findings as potentially important – as does the Spanish government.
The Embassy of Spain in the UK also shared the achievement on X, writing: ‘A team of scientists from the Spanish Cancer Research Centre, led by the renowned Dr Mariano Barbacid, has achieved the complete and permanent disappearance of pancreatic cancer in experimental models.
‘This discovery could make a difference in the fight against this disease.’
At present, pancreatic cancer is incurable, with life expectancy just five years from initial diagnosis.
It kills because it aggressively invades nearby organs, blocks the bile and intestinal ducts, and spreads via the blood and lymphatic system to the liver, lungs, and abdomen, eventually triggering organ failure.
The pancreas aids digestion and produces hormones, such as insulin and glucagon, which help convert sugar from food into energy.
Pancreatic cancer can inhibit the gland from making enough of these hormones—which can lead to unstable blood sugar levels.
Common symptoms of the incurable cancer include jaundice, when the skin and eyes take on a yellowish tinge, loss of appetite, weight loss, fatigue, a high temperature, feeling or being sick, diarrhoea and constipation.
Research published last year suggested that more than half of patients diagnosed with the six ‘least curable’ cancers—including lung, liver, brain, oesophageal, stomach and pancreatic—die within a year of their diagnosis.
More than 90,000 people are diagnosed with one of these deadly cancers in the UK every year, accounting for nearly half of all common cancer deaths, according to Cancer Research UK.
Around 10,500 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the UK each year, and more than half of patients will die within three months of diagnosis. Less than eleven per cent live for five years.
There are currently no early detection tests and approximately 80 per cent of people are not diagnosed until the cancer has spread, meaning life-saving treatment is no longer possible.
