Discovery Suggests Possible Way To Treat Deadly Disease — And A Drug Already Exists To Do It

Topline

Researchers have uncovered an unusual way some cancer cells make nutrients they need to grow, a discovery that could hold the key to starving one of America’s deadliest cancers with a drug we already possess and raising hopes for a powerful new treatment against a disease that is often caught late and has one of the lowest survival rates of any cancer.

Pancreatic cancer has one of the lowest survival rates of any cancer.

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Key Facts

Pancreatic cancer cells make use of a unique metabolic pathway to create a vital type of nutrient called polyamines that all cells need to grow, according to peer reviewed research published Wednesday in Nature.

While all cells make polyamines, pancreatic cancer cells do it differently to most other kinds of cell in the body, Nada Kalaany, an associate professor of pediatrics at Harvard Medical School and the study’s senior author, told Forbes.

The discovery signposts new ways to specifically target pancreatic cancer cells without harming the rest of the body, one of the main challenges that must be overcome when treating cancer.

Kalaany said it raises hopes for developing a “promising” treatment that can target patients’ “with minimal toxicity.”

What’s more, a drug already exists that targets a vital part of the metabolic pathway exploited by the cancer cells —it was previously tested in zebrafish and mice to boost ammonia detoxification and protect the liver—and it can be repurposed to target pancreatic cancer.

The drug curbed tumor growth when tested in both mice and human cells, the researchers said, illustrating its promise as a potential treatment.

What To Watch For

Kalaany told Forbes the next big challenge will be conducting early stage clinical trials in pancreatic cancer patients, which will test the existing drug that targets the unique metabolic pathway used by the cancer cells alongside standard chemotherapy. Kalaany said these will most likely emerge in the “near future.” In addition to using the existing drug known to inhibit the pathway, Kalaany told Forbes the team plans to work with clinicians and pharmaceutical firms to develop an “optimized” and “more potent” way of inhibiting the metabolic pathway that could also be tested in the future.

Key Background

Pancreatic cancer is the 10th most commonly diagnosed cancer in the U.S. and the third leading cause of cancer-related deaths. Research suggests it is on track to become the second leading cause by the end of the decade. Despite limited progress in recent years, pancreatic cancer has the lowest survival rate of any group of cancers and around 12% of people live at least five years after diagnosis. While numerous factors and individual circumstances all influence survival rates, early detection is particularly important. Unfortunately, detecting pancreatic cancer in its early stages is tough as there are no specific tests to screen for it and it often produces no noticeable symptoms until it has progressed to later stages, at which point it has often spread to other parts of the body. Specific treatments for pancreatic cancers are limited and surgical removal is often not viable in later stages.

Big Number

49,830. That’s how many people died from pancreatic cancer in 2022, the National Cancer Institute estimates. After lung and bronchus cancers and colorectal cancers, which respectively killed an estimated 130,180 and 52,580 people, it is the deadliest cancer. Overall, cancer killed an estimated 609,360 people in the U.S. last year, according to NCI, and some 1.9 million people were diagnosed with the disease.

What We Don’t Know

It’s possible the cancer cells will be able to overcome efforts to starve them, Kalaany said, possibly by taking up polyamines from outside that were produced by neighboring cells. “Cancer cells are metabolically flexible and can figure out means to overcome, resist or “outsmart” new treatments,” Kalaany explained, adding that such behavior was not observed in any of the group’s studies. If this does happen, Kalaany said the treatment could be used alongside other drugs and that the best combinations will be figured out with future clinical trials.