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Blending old and new to fight pancreatic cancer
Kanazawa, Japan – Bertolt Brecht, the German playwright, famously said, “Mixing one’s wines may be a mistake, but old and new wisdom mix admirably.” Now, researchers at Kanazawa University have shown that a combination of innovative immunomodulation with traditional chemotherapy may prove efficacious in combatting metastatic cancer of the pancreas.
Pancreatic cancer is a dreaded malignancy, the commonest variant being pancreatic ductular adenocarcinoma (PDAC). Most patients present in advanced stages, with only about a fifth amenable to curative surgery at diagnosis. Conventional chemotherapy involves the drug Gemcitabine (GEM) but, unfortunately, the outcome is often bleak.