Spanish team manages to cure pancreatic cancer in mice

A team of Spanish researchers, led by biochemist Mariano Barbacid, was able to eliminate for the first time the most common pancreatic cancers in mice. It is about the most lethal tumors that harbad humans and only 5% of patients with this disease have more than five years of life. As Barbacid said at a press conference in Madrid this week: "I am very worried about giving false hope, I want to make it clear that it will not work for people currently suffering from cancer. pancreas. "And he called it" it's about opening new doors ".

In most cases, the initial mutation of pancreatic tumors in humans appears in KRAS, a gene that under normal conditions would prevent cell multiplication. Since its discovery in 1982, scientists have published about 36,000 studies on the gene and its impact on cancer, but there is still no drug to neutralize its activity in case of proliferation. "Either we are incompetent or it's complicated," said Barbacid, of the National Cancer Research Center (CNIO), in the Spanish capital.

The success of this team is based on the genetic modification of 12 rodents, in order to present these same mutations in KRAS and another common gene in another gene, TP53. Then, the genes of the mice were again modified to achieve the neutralization of a molecule resulting from the mutation of the KRAS gene (called c-Raf) and blockage of another of the usual cancer genes: the factor receptor. epidermal growth. This difficult genetic modification, unlikely in humans, succeeded in causing cancer and then neutralizing it in six of the treated mice.

The CNIO said in a statement that "until now, the disappearance (complete suppression) of advanced pancreatic cancer has never been observed in any experimental model". And as published in the journal Cancer Cell, this experimental approach also helped block the growth of nine of ten human pancreatic tumors implanted and cultured in other immunocompromised mice. Unfortunately, Barbacid warned that the implementation of this strategy among the people would not happen before five or ten years, baduming that it reaches.

Dr. Enrique de Madaria, vice president of the Spanish Association of Pancreatology, said that "the study opens a path of research to improve the prognosis of patients with pancreatic cancer, but it is far from being applicable in patients"And he added that" currently, there are no drugs that selectively block c-RAF without adverse effects at other levels. "For his part, De Madaria, a specialist in the General Hospital of Alicante, said that "this study calls for the search for new drugs offering hope to patients with pancreatic cancer".

Marta Puyol, director of research of the Spanish Association Against Cancer, asked at the political parties' press conference to approve as soon as possible a national cancer research strategy, with the aim of double the investment and reach 70% of Global Survival in Spain by 2030. At present, 53% of patients are still alive five years after diagnosis, a enough time to be considered a cure in many tumors. Success ranges from 85% in bad cancer to 5% in pancreatic tumors.

The goal now is to "understand what Mariano wants in his patients" [Barbacid] go in your mice, "said Carrato The oncologist has described the frightening dimension of the enemy.Patients with pancreatic cancer exhibit very nonspecific symptoms, such as nausea, weight loss and abdominal or lumbar pain. "It is very common that the patient suffers from a backache for one year and that he is not diagnosed with cancer until he / she is diagnosed with cancer. It jaundice, "said Carrato. "It's a reality that we're late for the diagnosis". And when the tumor is detected, surgery is no longer possible and chemotherapy and radiotherapy treatments are ineffective.

This is why "it should be emphasized any work offering new potential treatments for this tumor," explained the doctor, Teresa Macarulla, of the University Hospital Vall d'Hebron, Barcelona. In his opinion, this study is "optimistic", but "we must be careful with the results, since the authors report data from some models".