Breakthrough in treatment for type of pancreatic cancer

Pancreatic cancer is one of the biggest health concerns in the developed world due to its relatively untreatable nature. Pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma is the name of a type of the disease, which accounts for over 95 percent of cases, and grows extremely fast, most often with fatal results as it cannot be treated with conventional forms of treatment such as chemotherapy, as it is totally resistant to these drugs.

Now, the prognosis and wellness of those diagnosed with this horrible disease may be about to improve, thanks to a new focus that has been achieved in the research into pancreatic cancer. Key scientists have found that there is something called a ‘molecular pathway’ which is ‘switched on’ all the time and prompts pancreatic cancers to grow at an alarming rate. The thinking is to now find a way to disable this pathway and thus halt the growth of the cancers. One drug already on the market, a drug called bortezomib, is already used to treat several different types of blood cancer and may be the key to ‘locking’ this molecular pathway and stopping the disease in its tracks. This may lead to a new type of pancreatic cancer therapy and could have far-reaching implications for the wellbeing of those with the disease.

The research team tested 55 samples taken from humans with pancreatic cancer and found that this molecular pathway was malfunctioning in 69 percent of them. This lead them to believe that a cocktail of drugs which includes chemotherapy and the bortezomib may be the way forward in terms of treatment

Like any other scientific medical discovery, this will require a long period of clinical testing before it is widely available as a therapy, but the breakthrough discovery does give hope that in the future there may be more in the artillery to help fight this horrible disease.