Milestone: making pancreatic cancer disappear in mice – 21/04/2019

A team led by Spanish researchers realized for the first time in mice, completely eliminate pancreatic cancer, an advance that paves the way for the development of effective therapies against this type of tumors, which has a very high mortality rate.

The team, led by Dr. Mariano Barbacid, head of the AXA group at the National Center for Cancer Research (CNIO), achieved this discovery by combining the elimination of two molecular targets (called EGFR and c-RAF) linked to the gene. responsible for initiating more than 95% of this type of tumor (the oncogene KRAS).

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Barbacid insisted, in a press appearance to publicize the results, in which it's "a first step", In which it is necessary to continue research, in which the application of this type of therapies will not be available to humans in a period of at least five yearsso it does not work for patients who are currently suffering from this type of cancer.

Every day around the world, 1,200 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which has a survival rate five years after diagnosis, only 5%.

"The ductal adenocarcinoma of the pancreas" is one of the most resistant cancers to current treatments, and currently its cure is limited to cases in which the tumor is very localized and can be removed surgically, representing less than 10% of patients.

In the United States, it is already the third leading cause of death, behind lung cancer and colon cancer, and its mortality exceeds that of bad cancer in Spain.

Dr. Alfredo Carrato, Head of the Oncology Department of the Ramón y Cajal Hospital of Madrid and Director of the Ramón y Cajal Institute for Health Research, pointed out that every day "we are gaining ground on cancer "but he lamented that" this is not the case of pancreatic cancer ", which has been described as a "first clbad health emergency" and regretted that the diagnosis is late and the average survival rate is very low.

To present the results of the investigation published in front of the media, besides Barbacid, Dr. Alfredo Carrato, head of the oncology department of Ramón y Cajal Hospital of Madrid and director of the Institute Ramón y Cajal Health Research Center; and Dr. Marta Puyol, Research Director of the Spanish Association Against Cancer.

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9 out of 10 tumors

In the work, it has also been proven that inhibition of both molecular targets prevents the proliferation of nine out of ten tumors human pancreas, although this advance has been demonstrated with experimental models.

The authors of the research explained that the success of these experimental therapies this is not a guarantee that it will work in patients, but this activity is considered a critical preliminary step in the development of clinical trials.

The research used a new generation of mice genetically engineered to induce the same mutations that are responsible for most of these types of tumors in humans.

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The result was that a percentage of tumors not only stopped growing, but in a few weeks they have completely disappeared, a therapeutic effect that had never been observed before in any experimental model, and it was also observed that it was reached with very low levels of toxicity (a very easily controllable dermatitis).

Dr. Carrato lamented that the diagnosis of pancreatic cancer is reached "very late", and this has affected the importance of screening asymptomatic patients (when they have a family history), personalized treatment and the need to concentrate resources in highly specialized centers.

"Our commitment is to gain ground against the disease, is to get to our patients what Mariano Barbacid's team has already achieved in the mouse," said Alfredo Carrato.

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Barbacid, who insisted that this type of results should not arouse "false hopes" among those who are suffering today from pancreatic cancer, stressed that the problem of cancer is not to kill tumor cells, but to achieve it without causing high toxicity.

This discovery allowed the regression of these tumors with a "minimal" toxicity, Dr. Barbacid said that the results of this research open the door to the future use of new drugs to avoid the "poisons" currently used to fight the disease.

The challenge is to move from animal testing to humans, according to Dr. Carrato, who concluded that the pancreas, although it's a rare tumor, is the most lethal and, in 95% of cases, a prognosis. It's "unhappy".

Source: The Vanguardia

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