News and Inspirational Stories
Lustgarten and Salk Institute announce strategic pancreatic cancer research partnership
Discoveries
Neoadjuvant gemcitabine-based chemoradiotherapy prolonged OS compared with upfront surgery among patients with resectable and borderline resectable pancreatic cancer, according to phase 3 study results in Journal of Clinical Oncology.
UTSW study identifies a subset of cancer-associated fibroblasts that offers a new target to attack deadly disease and break the shield that protects pancreatic cancer from immunotherapy.
A new study by Dana-Farber Cancer Institute researchers has given scientists their first look at the genomic landscape of tumors that have grown resistant to drugs targeting the abnormal KRASG12C protein. Their work shows that, far from adopting a common route to becoming resistant, the cells take a strikingly diverse set of avenues, often several […]
Cancer cells can become resistant to treatments through adaptation, making them notoriously tricky to defeat and highly lethal. Cold Spring Harbor Laboratory (CSHL) Cancer Center Director David Tuveson and his team investigated the basis of “adaptive resistance” common to pancreatic cancer. They discovered one of the backups to which these cells switch when confronted with […]
Real Talk: Survivor, Patient & Family Stories
In the fall of 2018, Teri Cettina began feeling a mysterious pain around her ribs. “I thought I had done too many ab exercises at the gym,” says the 55-year-old health writer from Portland, Oregon. When Cettina visited her doctor, her blood and urine tests came back normal. But over the next several weeks, the […]
By Joe Barone- “What?” It is a frustrating, one-word question many of us exclaim when something in our lives seems completely surreal. Oftentimes, it’s provoked by something so egregious and so incomprehensible that we can only muster up this first reaction in our minds. “What?” It was the response by Michael and Debbie, whose full […]
Our hearts are broken at the news of the passing of Lustgarten friend, Steve Price of New York, NY. A passionate and insightful pancreatic cancer advocate and patient, Steve understood the urgency of moving the research along quickly and the importance of investing in the most innovative science with the greatest opportunity to drive real progress. Steve kept up with every advancement and promoted […]
By Kerri Kaplan, President Stephen Grand: Pancreatic Cancer Fighter and Research Funder Our hearts are broken at the news of the passing of Lustgarten ally and donor, Stephen Grand of Belvedere, CA. A passionate and insightful philanthropist, as well as a pancreatic cancer patient, Steve was in the unique position of understanding the urgency of […]
Early Detection
Newswise — A large international collaboration led by researchers from the Johns Hopkins Kimmel Cancer Center has identified promising new targets for pancreatic cancer treatment and early diagnosis after examining various aspects of these tumors’ genes and proteins. Their findings, published online Sept. 16 in Cell, could offer hope to patients with this deadly disease. […]
Pancreatic cancer is tricky to identify. In the early stages, there might not be much—if any—indication something is even wrong, and that’s exactly why doctors often refer to it as a “silent killer.” Most recently, the deadly disease took the life of actor Willie Garson. Best known for his role as Stanford Blatch on Sex […]
The incidental identification of pancreatic cysts has become more common with the increasing use of imaging modalities in clinical practice. Currently, an estimated 15% of Americans are believed to harbor a pancreatic cyst.1 Unlike other cysts within the body, pancreatic cysts are unique in that many pose an increased risk for development of pancreas cancer over […]
A test that spots pancreatic cancer from a single drop of blood could improve survival rates. The first blood test for early diagnosis of the hard-to-spot disease, it could be available within months. Pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival rate of the common cancers, with 7.3 per cent of patients alive five years after diagnosis, […]
Therapeutics
Research by Oregon State University has uncovered a potential new therapy for pancreatic cancer, whose survival rate is among the lowest of all malignancies.
When you’re facing a pancreatic cancer diagnosis, humor may be tough to come by. Instead, feelings of grief, sadness, depression and anxiety become so all-consuming that getting a chuckle from even the most hilarious prank seems like an impossibility. But here’s the thing: It turns out that laughter — whether forced or spontaneous — is […]
Results from an ongoing phase 2b GRECO-2 clinical trial show that the novel drug GC4419 may be promising in treating patients with unresectable or borderline resectable locally advanced pancreatic cancer who are undergoing stereotactic body radiation therapy (SBRT). When given with SBRT, the drug led to statistically significant improvements over placebo plus SBRT in progression-free […]
By Ellen Zimmerman The Therapeutics-Focused Research Program will advance the understanding of the causes and progression of pancreatic cancer and will identify new potential therapies. This grant program will stimulate research to stretch the limits of our current understanding of pancreatic cancer treatment; promote collaboration; and identify novel therapeutic approaches and drug targets. Fifty proposals […]
Precision Medicine
UTSW study identifies a subset of cancer-associated fibroblasts that offers a new target to attack deadly disease and break the shield that protects pancreatic cancer from immunotherapy.
Why do alterations of certain genes cause cancer only in specific organs of the human body? Scientists at the German Cancer Consortium (DKTK), the Technical University of Munich (TUM), and the University Medical Center Göttingen have now demonstrated that cells originating from different organs are differentially susceptible to activating mutations in cancer drivers: The same […]
Drew Huggins was running out of options. After his diagnosis of metastatic pancreatic cancer two years ago, at age 47, he hadn’t had any luck with the treatments he’d tried so far. His tumors didn’t respond to 13 cycles of FOLFIRINOX, an arduous four-drug chemotherapy combination. The chemo- therapy combination of gemcitabine and paclitaxel didn’t […]
By Kerri Kaplan Score! As hockey teams from the United States and Canada faced off recently to compete for the famed Stanley Cup, the leading cancer organizations in the US and Canada—the Lustgarten Foundation, Stand Up to Cancer, and Pancreatic Cancer Canada team up to fund a breakaway clinical trial to assist and save pancreatic […]
The Researchers
In this installment of LustgartenLIVE! doctors Avery Posey, Edwin Manuel and Howard Crawford discuss the importance of equity, accessibility and diversity in pancreatic cancer research. Join us June 15 as we lead the way to new milestones in pancreatic cancer research.
Pingping Hou, PhD, of Rutgers Cancer Institute of New Jersey and Edwin Manuel, PhD, of the City of Hope, were announced at the American Association for Cancer Research (AACR) Annual Meeting 2022 as the latest recipients of the Lustgarten FoundationAACR Career Development Awards for Pancreatic Cancer Research in Honor of Ruth Bader Ginsburg and John […]
An internationally renowned pancreatic surgeon, surgical oncologist, and cancer researcher, Christopher Wolfgang, MD, PhD, joined NYU Langone Health last January. He is chief of the new Division of Hepatobiliary and Pancreatic Surgery in the Department of Surgery, having previously served as chief of hepatobiliary and pancreatic surgery and vice chair for surgical oncology at Johns […]