Old Drug Shrinks a Particular Tumor in Pancreatic Cancer Patients

In a breakthrough finding, researchers claim that use of old drug 'rampamycin' helps shrink a particular type of tumor in pancreatic cancer patients.

The scientists at the Cancer Research UK Beaston Institute at the University of Glasgow, conducted an experiment on mice and found that an old drug - rampamycin - was effective in treating a particular type of pancreatic tumor that occurs due to fault in gene PTEN.

"It's a crucial step forward in developing new treatments for this devastating disease..." - Dr Jennifer Morton, study author.

Studies conducted earlier failed to prove the effectiveness of the drug in treating pancreatic cancers when given to patients with various forms of the disease. However, in the latest study, the researchers found that the pancreatic tumor caused by defect in gene PTEN is responsive to the drug rapamycin.

On treating those mice with faulty PTEN pancreatic tumor with rapamycin, the spread of cancer cells stopped and in some cases the drug was also effective in shrinking the tumor.

The researchers noticed that the drug effectively blocked a protein called 'mammalian target of rapamycin' or mTOR that regulates the growth of cell. This finding hints that tumors triggered by the faulty PTEN gene may be reliant on mTOR to continue developing.

On analyzing the same on a sample of human pancreatic tumors, the researchers noticed that 1 in every 5 had the faulty PTEN gene. Therefore, a substantial number of patients could benefit from rapamycin.

Study author Dr. Jennifer Morton, a scientist at the Cancer Research UK Beatson Institute in the University of Glasgow, said: "This is incredibly important research showing for the first time that there's potential to tailor treatment to pancreatic cancer patients based on differences in their tumour's genetic fingerprint. Although it's at a very early stage, it's the first time we've been able to pinpoint a genetic fault in pancreatic cancers and match it up with a specific drug. While more research is needed to see if this approach could benefit patients, it's a crucial step forward in developing new treatments for this devastating disease which has seen no survival improvements since the 70s."

Apart from this, the team also used a novel imaging technique to help view whether the drug was effectively working early on in the treatment, which may further help health experts monitor the manner in which the patients are responding.

Pancreatic cancer is the 4^th leading cause of cancer-related deaths in the U.S. This year, an estimated 46,420 adults (23,530 men and 22,890 women) in the United States will be diagnosed with pancreatic cancer. It is estimated that 39,590 deaths (20,170 men and 19,420 women) from this disease will occur this year.

The finding was published in Gut.