New light on why pancreatic cancer drugs can fail

Cancer Research UK scientists led an international team of investigators who have discovered a new mechanism that may explain why pancreatic  cancer patients are often resistant to the common chemotherapy  treatment, gemcitabine, according to a study published in the journal  Science on May 21. It is hoped this will help scientists overcome a  habitual resistance to gemcitabine and make future chemotherapy drugs  more effective.

Pancreatic cancer is diagnosed in 230,000 people across the world, with  7,600 new cases in the UK and 37,000 new cases in the USA each year.  Only 3% of patients survive for five years or more.

The scientists at Cancer Research UK's Cambridge Research Institute, who  were co-funded by The Lustgarten Foundation and the National Institutes  of Health, sought to understand why promising drugs generally fail in  pancreatic cancer clinical trials. They found that a  genetically-modified mouse model of pancreatic cancer that closely  resembles human disease  was also largely resistant to gemcitabine  treatment.