Treatment of cancer has a new development. Cancer is the second most deadly disease across the world. This is according to the World Health Organization. There were about 9.6 million cancer-related deaths. This huge number was in 2018 alone. The number in itself speaks the dreadfulness of this disease. And the number is huge because there is no cure.
Scientists, however, are trying really hard to develop one. Moreover, they are also working on finding a better treatment of cancer. And this is all the different types of cancer. This effort has paid off well. There has been a recent development in the treatment of pancreatic cancer.
The latest development in treatment for pancreatic cancer
The study is funded by the Pancreatic Cancer Collective. This is under the guidance of Dr. Tony Hunter of the Salk Institute. It has been published in the journal “Nature”. The research is via Eurek Alert.
The study is all about what happens when the stellate cells of pancreas get in contact with the cancer cells. These cancer cells are also located in the pancreas.
The process is considered to be “exploitable” by the researchers. This is because the process produces a key protein. This protein is known as Leukemia Inhibitory Factor (LIF).
It is this factor that the scientists are planning to target. This is because it will help in efficient treatment strategy. This strategy will be in particular for pancreatic cancer.
Results
Researchers claim that they are planning to block this LIF. They will do this either pharmacologically or genetically.
Moreover, by doing so they will be able to slow down the progression of the tumor. Even the metastasis will be slowed down then.
This, in turn, will make administering chemotherapy easier. Because of this, survival will be prolonged.
Pancreatic cancer does not respond well to chemotherapy. This is because a tumor is placed in a sheath. This sheath is known as the stroma.
Therefore, this result is a big success for a cure for cancer in 2019. Moreover, it will be of great help in the treatment of pancreatic cancer.
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