Pancreatic Cancer News and Research

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Pancreatic cancer is the fourth leading cause of all cancer deaths in the United States and the third leading cause of cancer deaths in individuals ages 40 to 60. Approximately 37,000 Americans are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year, and, each year, approximately the same number die from it. Often, pancreatic cancer is found too late for surgical intervention, and chemotherapy and radiation treatments have little effect.

Costs of digestive diseases grown to more than $141 billion a year

Digestive, liver and pancreatic diseases result in more than 100 million outpatient visits and 13 million hospitalizations annually at a cost of $141.8 billion.

10 Feb 2009

Scientists discover protein critical for the growth of pancreatic cancer

Researchers at Stanford University School of Medicine have identified a protein critical for the growth of pancreatic cancer.

2 Feb 2009

Chemo boosts survival rates for pancreatic cancer

The use of chemotherapy following surgery reduces the risk of death from operable pancreatic cancer by around 30 per cent, says new research published in the British Journal of Cancer.

21 Jan 2009

Genetic variations in DNA repair patterns may increase risk of pancreatic cancer

Genetic variations in DNA repair patterns may increase risk of pancreatic cancer by as much as threefold or decrease it by as much as 77 percent, depending on the genes involved, according to a report published in the January 15, 2009, issue of Clinical Cancer Research, a journal of the American Association for Cancer Research.

19 Jan 2009

Defects in critical DNA repair genes may predict pancreatic cancer risk

Abnormalities in genes that repair mistakes in DNA replication may help identify people who are at high risk of developing pancreatic cancer, a research team from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center reports in the Jan. 15 issue of Clinical Cancer Research .

19 Jan 2009

Infection with hepatitis C virus may increase pancreatic cancer risk

A new study shows that infection with hepatitis C virus (HCV) increases a person's risk for a highly fatal cancer of the biliary tree, the bile carrying pathway between the liver and pancreas.

13 Jan 2009

Variations in mismatch repair genes predict prognosis in pancreatic cancer

Variations in mismatch repair genes can help predict treatment response and prognosis in patients with pancreatic cancer, according to research from The University of Texas M. D. Anderson Cancer Center presented today in advance of the American Society of Clinical Oncology (ASCO) Gastrointestinal Cancers Symposium.

13 Jan 2009

Magnetic nanotags allow sensitive detection of cancer biomarkers

The detection of cancer-associated proteins, or biomarkers, in blood samples is a potentially powerful tool for early diagnosis of cancer and monitoring of cancer treatment.

29 Dec 2008

Targeted nanoparticles deliver therapeutic DNA to cancer cells

Given that cancer is a disease caused by gene mutations, cancer researchers have been striving to develop gene therapies aimed at correcting these mutations. However, these efforts have been hobbled by the difficulty in safely and efficiently delivering anticancer genes to tumors. Nanoparticles, however, may solve these delivery issues, and two recently published studies, using two different types of nanoparticles, lend credence to that hypothesis.

29 Dec 2008

Cellular reprogramming, the 'Breakthrough of the Year' according to AAAS

In its annual list of the year's top ten scientific breakthroughs, the journal Science has given top honors to research that produced "made-to-order" cell lines by reprogramming cells from ill patients.

18 Dec 2008

Pre-existing diabetes for persons diagnosed with cancer associated with increased risk of death

Patients with diabetes at the time of a cancer diagnosis have an increased risk of death compared to patients without diabetes, according to a meta-analysis of studies reported in the December 17 issue of JAMA, the Journal of the American Medical Association.

16 Dec 2008

Possible new therapeutic target for pancreatic cancer

A possible new therapeutic target for pancreatic cancer, the most lethal form of human cancer, has been identified in the proteins whose DNA recipe comes from gene, "Seven-In-Absentia," according to researchers at the American Society for Cell Biology (ASCB) 48th Annual Meeting, Dec. 13-17, 2008 in San Francisco.

14 Dec 2008

New approaches to prevent blood clots

The largest study ever to examine the preventive use of blood-thinning medication to help prevent deadly blood clots in patients with cancer undergoing chemotherapy presented December 7 during the 50th Annual Meeting of the American Society of Hematology in San Francisco, CA.

8 Dec 2008

Prototype blood scanner detects even faint indicators of cancer

A team led by Stanford researchers has developed a prototype blood scanner that can find cancer markers in the bloodstream in early stages of the disease, potentially allowing for earlier treatment and dramatically improved chances of survival.

3 Dec 2008

Protein indoleamine 2,3-dioxygenase points to new pancreatic cancer therapies

An enzyme that is overexpressed in pancreatic cancer cells may hold the key to successfully treating the disease with targeted immunotherapy, researchers from Thomas Jefferson University reported at the 2008 Annual Meeting of the Southern Surgical Association.

1 Dec 2008

EGFR inhibitors show promise for obesity

Once-promising drugs that were abandoned in the fight against breast cancer still could be effective in obese patients, new research suggests.

1 Dec 2008

New study on pancreatic cancer survival

Pancreatic cancer is one of the deadliest and most difficult to treat cancers. Now, in a major step forward, researchers at NewYork-Presbyterian Hospital/Weill Cornell Medical Center have shown that administering radiation therapy prior to surgery nearly doubles survival in pancreatic cancer patients with operable tumors.

25 Nov 2008

Declines in cancer incidence and death rates across U.S.

A new report from the nation's leading cancer organizations shows that, for the first time since the report was first issued in 1998, both incidence and death rates for all cancers combined are decreasing for both men and women, driven largely by declines in some of the most common types of cancer.

25 Nov 2008

Pancreatic duct cells identified as new source of insulin-producing cells

Researchers at the Joslin Diabetes Center have shown that insulin-producing pancreatic beta cells can form after birth or after injury from progenitor cells within the pancreas that were not beta cells, a finding that contradicts a widely-cited earlier study that had concluded this is not possible.

24 Nov 2008