UK Edition
A breakthrough in understanding how pancreatic cancer spreads could pave the way for new treatments, according to experts.
Scientists have discovered how pancreatic cancer suppresses the function of a gene called HNF4A, which is crucial to the healthy functioning of the pancreas and insulin production, and allows the cancer to spread.
Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest forms of the disease because it grows so quickly and is hard to treat.
There are around 10,500 new cases in the UK every year but just 10 per cent of people will survive beyond five years.
It claims nearly 9,000 lives each year, and has taken the lives of famous people such as Alan Rickman, Sir John Hurt, Steve Jobs and Patrick Swayze.
Researchers hope the new findings could pave the way for a long-awaited improvement in treatment options.
Dr Maria Hatziapostolou, a scientist in Nottingham Trent University’s John van Geest Cancer Research Centre, said: “Pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival of all the 20 common cancers.
“The survival of patients beyond five years has improved very little for some time and so it’s extremely important that we find new ways to better understand this disease, how it spreads and why it is so aggressive.
“This work, which has provided new understanding and knowledge of how the cancer behaves, will hopefully help pave the way for potential new treatments in the future.”
Pancreatic cancer is often diagnosed at an advanced stage when treatment options become limited, with more than half of patients dying within three months of diagnosis.
For the study, published in the journal Gastro Hep Advances, the researchers analysed healthy and pancreatic cancer tissue samples.
They found pancreatic cancers triggered a process known as DNA methylation, causing the beneficial HNF4A molecules to switch off and allowing tumours to grow rapidly.
‘Poor patient survival’
Dr Hatziapostolou said: “Loss of HNF4A drives pancreatic cancer development and aggressiveness and we now know [it] correlates with poor patient survival.”
Dr Chris Macdonald, head of research at Pancreatic Cancer UK, which funded the study, said: “We desperately need kinder and more effective treatment options for pancreatic cancer.
“The majority of pancreatic cancers are diagnosed at a late stage, with 80 per cent not being detected until after the disease has spread and is no longer operable.”
He added: “Improving our fundamental understanding of what makes pancreatic cancer grow and spread so rapidly is vital if we are to make much-needed breakthroughs.
“This project gives us new information on how pancreatic cancer is able to suppress certain molecules to help it spread aggressively around the body which, in turn, could lead to the development of more effective treatment options in the future.”
Scientists from the University of Nottingham, Stanford University and the University of California and Cedars-Sinai Medical Centre, Los Angeles, were also involved in the project.