Pancreatic cancers can be found when beyond using surgery
Professor Jeff Evans, chief investigator, University of Glasgow, said:
“This is the first time we’re looking at ways to make pancreatic cancer cells more sensitive to radiotherapy. One way to make pancreatic cancer a more treatable disease is to shrink the tumour enough to make surgery a possibility and we hope to see that happen in this trial.”
Many people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer when the tumour is too big to be removed by surgery. The treatment aimed at pancreatic cancer could shrink tumours back into an easier-to-treat state.
Radiotherapy, and certain chemotherapy drugs, work by causing damage to DNA in cancer cells. If cancer cells repair this damage, then tumours are more resistant to treatment.
Cells rely on PARP-1 to help repair their damaged DNA..Using of Olaparib helps stop the PARP-1 enzyme in the body, from working and so disrputs repairs to the damaged DNA. This makes it more likely that the cancer cells will die once olaparib stops PARP-1 working.
The drug is currently approved for treating certain types of advanced ovarian cancer and has been used in clinical trials for pancreatic cancer as well as some other types.
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Professor Peter Johnson, Cancer Research UK’s chief clinician, said:
“Around 9,400 people are diagnosed with pancreatic cancer each year in the UK and it remains a very difficult disease to spot at an early stage, making it much harder to treat. Despite this we are making steady progress through research and trials like this one.
“We still have a long way to go, but Cancer Research UK has made a big increase in the amount we’re investing into pancreatic cancer research, tripling our spend in this area, and we are just starting to see the results.”