Breakthrough in the fight against the world’s deadliest cancer: new drug shrinks up to 70% of pancreatic tumors in laboratory research

An experimental drug for aggressive, deadly pancreatic cancer effectively shrunk nearly all tumors tested, a new laboratory study shows.

The researchers who tested the new treatment said it was the most effective study yet, shrinking tumors in peti dishes by between 30 and 98 percent.

Pancreatic cancer affects about 67,000 Americans each year and kills about 52,000 of them.

It is typically rapidly progressive and is considered one of the most sinister forms of the disease that has claimed the lives of high-profile patients such as Ruth Bader Ginsburg, Patrick Swayze, Alan Rickman and Steve Jobs.

Currently, treatments such as surgery, chemotherapy and immunotherapy that aim to cure the disease are often unsuccessful because the diagnosis is usually made at a late stage.

Former Apple CEO Steve Jobs battled pancreatic cancer for a decade, but he made no public statements about his disease and was determined to stay on the job as long as possible.

The latest experimental drug successfully interfered with the genetic factors of about 95 percent of the most common form of pancreatic cancer: pancreatic ductal adenocarcinomas.

A gene called KRAS plays a crucial role in cell division, proliferation and death.

When the gene is mutated, it stimulates the uncontrollable growth of cells, a hallmark of cancer.

Dr. Kenneth Olive, a doctor at Columbia University who led the research in his laboratory, said: ‘For more than forty years we have known that there is one particular RAS protein, called KRAS, that is mutated and causes about 95 percent of all ductal adenocarcinomas. of the pancreas. fallen, and for most of that time we have had no direct means of attacking it.”

The mutated gene helps convert normal pancreatic cells into cancer cells, promoting the growth of treatment-resistant tumors that respond poorly to chemotherapy.

The researchers tested the drug on human-derived cancer cells and found that tumor shrinkage was observed in seven of 10 models, with the degree of shrinkage ranging from 30 percent to 98 percent relative to the base volume of the tumor.

Dirty Dancing actor Patrick Swayze was diagnosed with stage 4 pancreatic cancer in early 2008 and died less than two years later

Pancreatic cancer is among the most deadly forms, killing roughly 90 percent of victims, and has a five-year survival rate of about two percent or less.

Dr. Olive said, “RMC-7977 (name of the new drug) as a monotherapy outperformed the best combination regimen ever reported in the literature in that model system,” adding that it was the first time he had seen tumors routinely. become small for all models.

They also found that the treatment did not harm other, healthy cells. Many cancer treatments, including chemotherapy and radiation, can damage healthy cells while targeting cancer cells.

Pancreatic cancer typically shows no symptoms until the disease has reached an advanced stage.

Dr. Olive added: ‘I have been working on pancreatic cancer for almost twenty years and I have never seen preclinical results like this.

‘I think there is a real chance that this approach will help change the standard of care for patients with pancreatic cancer, but only clinical trials can tell.

It can cause loss of appetite, stomach pain that radiates to the sides and back, weight loss, yellowing of the eyes and skin (jaundice), dark-colored urine, itching, uncontrolled diabetes, pain and swelling in the arms or legs, and fatigue or weakness.

A 2022 questionnaire from the Pancreatic Cancer Action Network found that 83 percent of adults are unaware of the signs of the disease.

Smoking and type 2 diabetes are important risk factors. Others include a family history of certain DNA mutations that cause cancer, obesity, old age and heavy alcohol drinking.

There has been a worrying increase in the number of new cases of pancreatic cancer affecting younger women.

Surprisingly, according to recent analyses, women under 55 had a 2.4 percent higher increase in pancreatic cancer rates compared to men of the same age.

Dr. Srinivas Gaddam, the physician at Cedars-Sinai who made this discovery, said, “And while we report improvements in survival in pancreatic cancer every year, most of that improvement is in men.

‘The mortality rate among women is not improving.’

Pancreatic cancer made headlines in 2011 when Apple CEO Steve Jobs succumbed to it after a years-long battle that he spoke little about in public.

Actor Alan Rickman, who played Severus Snape in the Harry Potter series, died after a brief battle with the disease, while judge Ruth Bader Ginsburg battled the disease for 11 years before passing away in 2020 at the age of 87.

The latest findings from the consortium of doctors have been published in the journal Nature.