{"id":222656,"date":"2025-09-30T00:16:28","date_gmt":"2025-09-30T05:16:28","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/cancer-fighting-gene-plays-unexpected-role-in-pancreatic-cancer-tumor-growth"},"modified":"2025-09-30T00:16:28","modified_gmt":"2025-09-30T05:16:28","slug":"cancer-fighting-gene-plays-unexpected-role-in-pancreatic-cancer-tumor-growth","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2025\/09\/cancer-fighting-gene-plays-unexpected-role-in-pancreatic-cancer-tumor-growth","title":{"rendered":"Cancer-fighting gene plays unexpected role in pancreatic cancer tumor growth"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/cancer-fighting-gene-plays-unexpected-role-in-pancreatic-cancer-tumor-growth3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>New research from Indiana University School of Medicine scientists has revealed that a well-known cancer-fighting gene also plays an unexpected role in regulating how certain immune cells can support tumor growth. This insight into pancreatic cancer progression could lead to more effective treatments against one of the deadliest forms of cancer.<\/p>\n<p>The study, recently <a href=\"https:\/\/www.science.org\/doi\/10.1126\/sciadv.adx5495\" target=\"_blank\">published<\/a> in <i>Science Advances<\/i>, focused on M2-like macrophages, a subtype of <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/immune+cells\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">immune cells<\/a> found in the tumor environment that are known to weaken the body\u2019s ability to fight cancer. The researchers examined how a gene called serine\/threonine kinase 11 (STK11) influences these cells. They found that when STK11 is missing in macrophages, those cells switch into a tumor-supporting state.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cSTK11 was originally identified as a <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/tumor+suppressor\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">tumor suppressor<\/a> and extensive studies have examined the gene\u2019s functions and mechanisms in regulating cancer cell growth,\u201d said Kai Yang, PhD, corresponding author of the study, an associate professor of pediatrics and microbiology and immunology at the IU School of Medicine and a researcher with the Indiana University Melvin and Bren Simon Comprehensive Cancer Center.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>New research from Indiana University School of Medicine scientists has revealed that a well-known cancer-fighting gene also plays an unexpected role in regulating how certain immune cells can support tumor growth. This insight into pancreatic cancer progression could lead to more effective treatments against one of the deadliest forms of cancer. The study, recently published [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":662,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-222656","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222656","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/662"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=222656"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/222656\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=222656"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=222656"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=222656"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}