According to the Hirshberg Foundation for Pancreatic Research, pancreatic cancer has the highest mortality rate of all major types of cancers. Seventy-four percent of patients with the illness die within the first year of diagnosis. Part of the reason pancreatic cancer is so difficult to treat is that it is largely asymptomatic. Researchers have struggled for decades to try to understand the disease and develop better treatments, but a breakthrough recently published in the journal Nature may provide a guide to pursuing new courses of treatment going forward, some of which already exist.
After analyzing hundreds of pancreatic tumors, an international research team led by Professor Sean Grimmond of the University of Melbourne discovered that there are actually four different types of pancreatic cancers:
- Squamous – a more aggressive type of tumor that spreads quickly
- Pancreatic progenitor – expresses genes involved in early pancreatic development, like those of pancreatic stem cells, disrupting the development of normal pancreatic cells
- Immunogenic – these tumors disrupt the immune system in a way that it can’t recognize cancer cells
- Aberrantly Differentiated Endocrine Exocrine (ADEX) – upregulates genes that play a role in exocrine and endocrine differentiation, also disrupting normal development of pancreatic cells
Which tumors may be treatable?
Squamous tumors bear similarities to some types of breast cancers and lung cancers, and the immunogenic pancreatic tumors bear similarities to immunogenic tumors found in other cancers. Some types of cancers that have been known to be immunogenic include skin cancer and cervical cancer. Immunogenic tumors somehow evade the immune system’s response to cancer cells. Although there may be some treatment options available for those with squamous pancreatic cancer, researchers are most hopeful about the immunogenic type. There are currently immunotherapy drugs under development, and some recently approved, that help the immune system to attack cancer cells.
Opdivo Cancer Medication
One of these drugs is called Opdivo, which has so far been approved for the treatment of melanoma, non-small cell lung cancer and kidney cancer. Another immunotherapy that is still under development is called algenpantucel-L by NewLink Genetics. This drug is being developed specifically for pancreatic cancer.
Although there is still a long way to go in the treatment of pancreatic cancer, being able to distinguish between the different types of tumors and understanding their natures will help physicians pursue the best course of treatment for patients in the future.
