Pancreatic Cancer: A Glimmer Of Hope

The death of Steve Jobs, the co-founder and chairman of the computer giant Apple, in 2011 has once more draw the public attention to pancreatic cancer, one of the deadliest cancers known. The aggressive nature of this disease is certainly one of the major contributing factors to the poor rate of cure. On top of this, doctors still have a very limited arsenal of drugs and tool that could help in dealing with this severe condition, and the research on pancreatic cancer certainly attract much smaller funds compared to other types of malignancies.

Pancreatic cancer is often detected at an advanced stage since its clinical presentation is rather non-specific thereby making the consequent treatment a difficult task. In order to improve the chances of patient’s survival, the correct early diagnosis is a pressing need. Although a number of detection methods including the imaging based techniques are available, only a few of them have been established as clinically reliable approaches for detection of this disease.

Pancreatic cancer usually shows a high degree of resistance to the available therapeutic interventions. This calls for the development of novel target based therapies.

Existing treatments for pancreatic cancer have limited success

The existing treatment modalities available for the treatment of pancreatic cancer include surgery, chemotherapy and radiation therapy.

Surgery is generally employed to remove the affected part of pancreas or the entire organ. However, it is only effective if the cancer is not metastatic. Once cancer has spread to the other parts and organs of the body, surgical removal of pancreas proves futile to cure the patient of the disease, as the removal of all cancer cells fro the body becomes impossible. Palliative surgery can be used to relieve patients from pain in some cases. This surgery does not aim for cure but only for the temporary improvement of patient’s health.

Chemotherapy is also employed to treat pancreatic cancer. The drug most commonly used for this purpose is Gemcitabine (Gemzar). 5-fluorouracil is another important chemotherapeutic drug that has found some success. Chemotherapy is not always intended to fully treat cancer. It is often used after surgery to kill any remaining cancer cells that might have been left behind. It has been found that a single drug is usually ineffective in curing the disease, and therefore various drug combinations are commonly used. However, there are multiple side-effects associated with chemotherapy. Radiation is generally used in combination with chemotherapy or surgery. Usually the radiation is given for 5-6 weeks at a frequency of 5 days/week. Radiotherapy adds to the burden of side effects and complications, but is proven to be beneficial in the long terms. The common side effects associated with chemotherapy and radiation therapy include nausea, diarrhea, fatigue, vomiting and skin changes. Also, many patients have problems with maintaining the body weight and lose appetite.

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In recent years, new drugs that can specifically target cancer cells are being designed. One such drug, erlotinib (Tarceva), was shown to improve the condition of pancreatic cancer patients at advanced stage of disease. It also has fewer side-effects compared to traditional chemotherapy.

In some cases, the treatment of pancreatic cancer can provide full relief from the disease. However, the therapeutic interventions are usually very stressful and often fail. It is a well-established fact that pancreatic tumors are highly resistant and the general worry among patients is the recurrence. In most of the pancreatic cancer patients, the disease is never completely treated. Therefore, there is a real need to develop novel therapeutic regimes to target this disease.

Recent Advances Bring Hope Of New Effective Therapies For Pancreatic Cancer

In an important study done by researchers from the Albert Einstein College of Medicine it was shown that the growth and spread of pancreatic cancer can be prevented by the use of radioactive bacteria. In this work, the radioisotopes used to treat cancer were incorporated into bacteria that carried them directly to the pancreatic cancer cells. As a result of this targeted delivery, the cases of secondary tumors went down dramatically, thus significantly reducing the chances of metastases to form. The researchers reported almost 90 per cent reduction of metastasis. What was even more encouraging is that this approach is effective against already existing aggressive forms of metastatic pancreatic cancer. The findings give hope that a new and effective approach to the pancreatic cancer treatment finally can be seen on the horizon.

Surprising success of hypertension drugs in treating cancer

Significant advances were recently made in the development of new pharmaceutical agents against cancer. But the old drugs should not be discarded. A good example of novel use for a well-established drug was recently published in journal Nature Communications.  A safe and well-tolerated drug against blood pressure proved to be useful as an anti-cancer agent. One of the major problems in dealing with the cancerous tissues is the lack of blood vessels supplying the tumors. Slow growth of blood vessels limits the growth of tumors but also reduces the efficiency of anti-cancer drugs that cannot be effectively delivered to the cancer cells. The drugs against blood pressure can open up the blood vessels by relaxing the smooth muscles surrounding them. The simultaneous administration of drugs against cancer and blood pressure drugs can make standard chemotherapy much more effective. 

A clinical trial involving human pancreatic cancer patients has now been initiated. Scientists expect that this new therapeutic approach can improve the survival of patients by several years.

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Preventive strategies and lifestyle modifications

As with many other cancers, the risk of pancreatic cancer can be reduced by the lifestyle modifications. It has been found that smoking is one of the major triggering factors behind the development of pancreatic cancer and is implicated in 15-20 % of all cases. Chronic pancreatitis, a condition often associated with obesity, is another risk factor for pancreatic cancer.

Recently, it has been suggested that some vitamins can significantly decrease the pancreatic cancer risk due to their potent anti-oxidant activities. Vitamin D in particular has been used to fight against many different cancer types including that of the pancreas. Some of the dietary supplements rich in vitamin B (B6, folate, B12) can also combat the menace of pancreatic cancer.

Obviously, the current preventive strategies do not guarantee the escape from cancer. That is why the development of new effective methods for treating pancreatic cancer remains high on the agenda.