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Of all major cancers, pancreatic cancer has the highest death rate – 93% of patients die within five years of diagnosis.
The treatment of the disease is difficult, not only because of the rapid spread of tumors, but also because of cachexia, a disease that causes muscles to melt and affects at least 80% of people with pancreatic cancer. However, a team of researchers at the OU College of Medicine has published an innovative research study that reveals how cachexia is triggered, paving the way for new studies on how to prevent it. The research was recently published in the newspaper Gastroenterology, the leading publication on diseases of the gastrointestinal tract.
Pancreatic cancer is a very hard disease and new therapies such as the treatment of cachexia are the only way forward because the traditional approach of trying to destroy the tumor is not enough. "
Courtney Houchen, M.D., lead author of the study
Although cachexia can occur in many types of cancer, it is particularly prevalent in pancreatic cancer. Patients with cachexia experience a dramatic loss of muscle mbad, usually accompanied by a loss of appetite, weight loss and fatigue. Since cachexia strikes so much patients with pancreatic cancer, many can not undergo surgery and respond poorly to chemotherapy and radiation therapy.
Researchers at the OU College of Medicine have decided to better understand the causes of cachexia in order to give patients the best chance to fight pancreatic cancer. The team focused on a protein called ZIP4, which she already knew was excessive in pancreatic cancer. In the new study, researchers discovered that ZIP4 is at the center of a communication that occurs between pancreatic cancer cells and muscle cells. During this communication, ZIP4 invites cancer cells to release two specific types of molecules and even triggers the opening of a pathway for their pathway to the muscles. ZIP4 also equates hailing a taxi for the molecules – called exosomes – that route them to the muscle cells, where they invite cachexia to begin.
"We believe that this discovery is important because of its potential for translation into a therapy for patients, so if we can find a way to inhibit ZIP4, we hope to intervene much earlier with cachexia and help more patients." being able to undergo surgery, that would have also meant that they would react better to chemotherapy and radiotherapy, which would also increase the survival rate, "said Min Li, Ph.D., another lead author of The study, which holds the Virginia Kerley Cade Chair Doted in Cancer Treatment.
The research team at the OU College of Medicine, which includes both scientists and physicians from the Department of Medicine, is leveraging this collaboration to turn a lab result into patient treatment more quickly. The next steps are to deepen the study of ZIP4 and look for a way to hinder its role in triggering cachexia.
"The way we have traditionally considered cancer is that if you can only kill cancer cells, people will get better, but it's not realistic – we need to treat complications such as cachexia to help people to survive, "said Houchen. "We now have the opportunity to examine potential targets for overcoming cachexia, which could then improve the treatment of pancreatic cancer and its devastating consequences."
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