{"id":89685,"date":"2019-04-18T09:24:02","date_gmt":"2019-04-18T16:24:02","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/new-study-targets-achilles-heel-of-pancreatic-cancer-with-promising-results"},"modified":"2019-04-18T09:24:02","modified_gmt":"2019-04-18T16:24:02","slug":"new-study-targets-achilles-heel-of-pancreatic-cancer-with-promising-results","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/2019\/04\/new-study-targets-achilles-heel-of-pancreatic-cancer-with-promising-results","title":{"rendered":"New study targets Achilles\u2019 heel of pancreatic cancer, with promising results"},"content":{"rendered":"<p><a class=\"aligncenter blog-photo\" href=\"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog.images\/new-study-targets-achilles-heel-of-pancreatic-cancer-with-promising-results3.jpg\"><\/a><\/p>\n<p>Advanced pancreatic cancer is often symptomless, leading to late diagnosis only after metastases have spread throughout the body. Additionally, tumor cells are encased in a \u201cprotective shield,\u201d a microenvironment conferring resistance to many cancer treatment drugs. Now, Salk Institute researchers, along with an international team of collaborators, have uncovered the role of a signaling protein that may be the Achilles\u2019 heel of pancreatic cancer.<\/p>\n<p>The findings, published in <i>Nature<\/i> on April 17, 2019, show that pancreatic <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/stellate+cells\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">stellate cells<\/a>\u2014resident cells typically dormant in normal tissue\u2014become activated and secrete proteins to form a shell around the <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/tumor\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">tumor<\/a> in an attempt to wall off and contain it. The activated stellate cells also secrete a signaling protein called LIF, which conveys stimulatory signals to <a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/tags\/tumor+cells\/\" rel=\"tag\" class=\"\">tumor cells<\/a> to drive pancreatic cancer development and progression. Results also suggest LIF may be a useful biomarker to help diagnose pancreatic cancer more quickly and efficiently.<\/p>\n<p>\u201cThere haven\u2019t been very many advances in pancreatic cancer therapy because it\u2019s a difficult cancer to diagnose and treat,\u201d says Salk American Cancer Society Professor Tony Hunter. \u201cUnderstanding this communication network between the cancer cells and stellate cells may enable us to develop more effective therapies, along with tools for earlier diagnosis.\u201d<\/p>\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/medicalxpress.com\/news\/2019-04-achilles-heel-pancreatic-cancer-results.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener noreferrer\"><\/p>\n<div style=\"clear:both;\">Read more<\/div>\n<p><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Advanced pancreatic cancer is often symptomless, leading to late diagnosis only after metastases have spread throughout the body. Additionally, tumor cells are encased in a \u201cprotective shield,\u201d a microenvironment conferring resistance to many cancer treatment drugs. Now, Salk Institute researchers, along with an international team of collaborators, have uncovered the role of a signaling protein [\u2026]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":513,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-89685","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-biotech-medical"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89685","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\/513"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=89685"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/89685\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=89685"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=89685"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/lifeboat.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=89685"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}