pancreas cancer : What's New in Pancreatic Cancer Research?

Research into the causes and treatment of pancreatic cancer is going on in many medical centers throughout the world.

Scientists are learning more about some of the changes in DNA that cause cells to become cancerous. In some families an inherited risk greatly increases the chance that members will have this cancer.

Finding cancer early: There are some tests that can help find early changes in the pancreas, changes that could later cause cancer. But these tests are only used if there is a strong reason to think that the person might be at risk.

Patients with family members who had pancreatic cancer may be offered certain new tests. The tests look for early changes that might point to pancreatic cancer. These tests, though, are only an option for people with a strong family history of pancreatic cancer rather than for people at normal risk who have no symptoms.

Immunology: Treatments that boost the patient’s immune system to fight cancer are being tested in clinical trials.

Chemotherapy: Many clinical trials are going on to test new ways to combine chemotherapy drugs. Other studies are testing the best ways to combine chemotherapy with radiation or other treatments.

Anti-angiogenesis factors: All cancers depend on the growth of new blood vessels (angiogenesis) to provide nourishment to the cells. New drugs that can block this growth and thus starve the tumor are being studied in clinical trials.

Other methods to block the growth and spread of cancer cells are also being studied.

Copyright 2006 © American Cancer Society, Inc.