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 […]
Scientists have identified a new class of targeted cancer drugs that offer the potential to treat patients whose tumors have faulty copies of the BRCA cancer genes. The drugs, known as POLQ inhibitors, specifically kill cancer cells with mutations in the BRCA genes while leaving healthy cells unharmed. And crucially, they can kill cancer cells […]
By 2030, pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC), the most lethal form of pancreatic cancer, is projected to become the second leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the United States. Not only are therapeutic options limited, but nearly half of all PDAC patients who have their tumors removed surgically experience disease recurrence within a year, despite receiving […]
If clinicians could stop mutations of the KRAS gene in pancreatic cancer – which happens in more than 90 percent of pancreatic cancer cases and drastically reduces response to immunotherapy – the chances of improving treatment for this deadly form of cancer would be increased. A collaborative study by Stony Brook University scientists, published in […]
In recent years there has been a movement toward so-called precision medicine in cancer treatment. For pancreatic cancer patients and others with different forms of cancer, precision medicine means using drugs to target specific mutations in genes in hopes of slowing disease progression. For some cancers, such as certain forms of lung cancer, this targeted […]