Pancreatic cancer successfully treated in mice after discovery of this

By Mark Waghorn via SWNS

Pancreatic cancer has been successfully treated in a breakthrough after the discovery of a protein that fuels its spread.

Manipulating levels reverse the ability of tumors to change into a more aggressive form, scientists found in mice.

The disease is the world's deadliest cancer. It has the worst survival rates - with only one in twenty patients alive five years after diagnosis.

More effective therapies are desperately needed. The study in the journal Nature opens the door to developing drugs that target a gene called GREM1.

Switching it off caused tumor cells to rapidly change shape and develop new properties that helped them migrate around the body.

They all turned into a dangerous, invasive type - within ten days. It applied to lab rodents and mini tumours, or 'organoids', grown in petri dishes.

The British team studied a mouse model of pancreatic ductal adenocarcinoma (PDAC) - the most common and lethal.

Around 90 percent of animals without functioning GREM1 developed tumors which had spread to their liver - compared to 15 per cent where it was working normally.

Boosting levels of the protein reversed the process - causing invasive cells to revert into a less dangerous form.

It could lead to the development of drugs that makes advanced pancreatic cancer easier to treat.

Fundamental discoveries such as this are crucial in directing efforts to find new cancer drugs and treatments.

Senior author Professor Axel Behrens, of The Institute of Cancer Research, London, said: "This is an important and fundamental discovery that opens up a new avenue for uncovering treatments for pancreatic cancer.

"We have shown it is possible to reverse cell fate in pancreatic cancer in the lab – turning back the clock on aggressive tumours and switching them to a state that makes them easier to treat.

"By better understanding what drives the aggressive spread of pancreatic cancer, we hope to now exploit this knowledge and identify ways to make pancreatic cancer less aggressive, and more treatable."

More than 10,000 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer in the UK each year - and over 9,000 will die from it.

The study in Nature also showed also another protein, known as BMP2, regulates GREM1.

The two proteins regulate the form PDAC cells ultimately take - a mathematical model first proposed by Second World War codebreaker Alan Turing in 1952.

These "Turing patterns" are found in nature – from the skin of the giant puffer fish to seashells.

Strikingly the same sort of designs are seen in the different types of cells found in pancreatic cancer. It could also apply to other forms of cancer.

Prof Kristian Helin, chief executive of The Institute of Cancer Research, said: "Pancreatic cancer is one of the most devastating of all cancers - the most common form of the disease spreads aggressively, making it hard to treat and a terrifying diagnosis for patients and their loved ones.

"This new finding has broadened our understanding of the molecular basis of how pancreatic cancer gains the ability to grow and spread around the body.

"Although more work is required, this type of fundamental research is essential for developing concepts for new and more effective treatments for cancer."

Pancreatic cancer is the tenth most common form of the disease in the UK, with 28 patients being diagnosed every day.

It's notoriously difficult to treat. Patients tend to be diagnosed in the later stages of the disease due to there being no screening program and the symptoms generally being vague, like upper abdominal pain.

The pancreas is also situated near other vital organs, like the liver and intestines, raising the risk a tumor will spread.