Research
Experimental drug eliminates 75% of aggressive pancreatic tumors and enhances immune system memory
The Brief
- An experimental drug eliminated about 75% of aggressive pancreatic tumours in mice, according to Medical Xpress.
- The drug also enhanced immune system memory in the treated mice.
- Many solid tumours, including pancreatic ones, are protected by a dense wall of scar-like tissue that keeps the immune system's cancer-killing T cells out.
Why it matters
The scar-like barrier is a major reason immunotherapy drugs often fail against solid tumours, so a treatment that gets past it could matter for pancreatic cancer. The evidence so far comes from mice, not patients.
Who’s affected
- cancer researchers
- oncologists and patients with pancreatic cancer
- #pancreatic cancer
- #immunotherapy
- #tumour microenvironment
- #t cells
- #mouse study
Many solid tumors, including many cancers of the pancreas, breast, colon and lung, protect themselves with a dense wall of scar-like tissue. That wall keeps the immune system's cancer-killing T cells out. It is a major reason why immunotherapy drugs, which have transformed…