New Therapies Show Some Promise Against Pancreatic Cancer

<p>TUESDAY, Jun 19 (HealthDay News) Giving 4 weeks of a
targeted drug before starting chemotherapy softened response rates in a
small organisation of patients with modernized pancreatic cancer, University of
Michigan researchers report.
The formula are very, really preliminary, pronounced Dr. Jay Brooks, chairman
of hematology/oncology during Ochsner Health System in Baton Rouge, La., but
may uncover a jot of swell during slightest in bargain a biology of
the disease. Pancreatic cancer is an impossibly formidable cancer to
treat.
The commentary were presented Tuesday during a American Association for
Cancer Researchs discussion on pancreatic cancer in Lake Tahoe, Nev.
The drug, GDC-0449, targets a Sonic Hedgehog signaling pathway, which
is switched on when cancer is present.
Activation of a pathway seems to minister to a scarring
characteristics of pancreatic cancer, that creates it harder for
chemotherapy drugs to dig and do their job.
The researchers hypothesized that giving...