December 11, 2019
This year alone an estimated 5,800 Canadians will have been diagnosed with pancreatic cancer, which is one of the most difficult cancers to treat. Unfortunately, the prognosis is not good for most patients, who typically have five or less years to live following diagnosis. Finding the cancer early, and treating it effectively give the best hope of survival, so many researchers have been searching for ways to help in the fight against this condition.
Researchers from Tel Aviv University and Sheba Medical Centre have been investigating the molecule PJ34 and its possible role in treating pancreatic cancer. For their study the researchers transplanted human pancreatic cancer into mice that were immunocompromised. They then intravenously injected the mice with the PJ34 molecule each day for two weeks and investigated to see if it had any effect on the cancer. They found that PJ34 caused the human cancer cells to self-destruct when the cells were dividing, resulting in a 90% reduction in cancerous cells.
Their results also promisingly appear to indicate that PJ34 has no effect on healthy cells. It is worth noting that the study did not specifically investigate if this proposed treatment could extend the life of patients, but if the cancerous cells are destroyed this is a possibility. Further research will be needed before PJ34 can even be tested in humans, but this work lays the groundwork for further investigation into this molecule in the fight against pancreatic cancer.
Source: Jerusalem Post
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