This week researchers in the Oregon Health & Science University (OHSU) Oregon Stem Cell Center and the OHSU Digestive Health Center are shining a new ray of hope on patients with pancreatic cancer. They've developed new reagents, or antibodies, that can recognize this often lethal disease. This important discovery may one day lead to earlier detection and treatment.
The new antibodies recognize a small number of normal pancreas cells, specifically cells involved in the transport of enzymes out of the pancreas, but recognize many more cells in pancreatic cancer tissue. In addition to recognizing pancreatic cancer, these antibodies recognize gastrointestinal cancers.
"The next step is to use these antibodies in a sensitive screening test to determine their full potential in diagnosis of this devastating disease," said Brett Sheppard, M.D., study co-investigator and pancreatic cancer surgeon in the OHSU Digestive Health Center.
Sheppard, who also is professor and vice chairman of surgery in the OHSU School of Medicine and a member of the OHSU Cancer Institute, will present these findings this week at Digestive Disease Week 2008 (Abstract No. 1838: "Development of Monoclonal Antibodies to Aid in the Diagnosis of Pancreatic Cancer").
Today just 15 percent of pancreatic cancer cases are detected early enough to qualify for a potential cure. Unfortunately, the signs and symptoms of the disease do not usually appear until the cancer is in advanced stages, when surgery - currently the best and only treatment for pancreatic cancer is no longer an option.
This adverse set of circumstances is compounded by the fact that pancreatic cancer is not common enough to justify routine screening in the general population, and there are no screening blood tests or radiologic procedures sensitive enough to detect it early on. As a result, today pancreatic cancer is the fourth-leading cause of cancer death in the United States.