Pancreatic cancer poses significant challenges in detection and treatment; however, promising advancements are emerging.

Pancreatic cancer poses significant challenges. It is difficult to detect in its early stages, tends to spread quickly, and often shows resistance to various treatment options.

This year, pancreatic cancer is expected to be the 12th most common cancer, but the National Cancer Institute (NCI) predicts it will cause the third highest number of cancer deaths. By 2030, it’s projected to become the second leading cause of cancer deaths in the U.S. This is because pancreatic cancer is often found too late for effective treatment.

However, there is a glimmer of hope emerging. Scientists appear to be advancing in the development of better therapies for this formidable illness. Here’s what you should be aware of regarding pancreatic cancer, its treatment options, and the exciting innovations currently being explored.

Fundamentals of Pancreatic Cancer

The pancreas is a large gland in the back of the abdomen. It has two functions: Making enzymes that help digest food and producing hormones that control the amount of sugar in the bloodstream.

Because the pancreas is located behind other organs, it’s hard for doctors to detect tumors there during routine exams. To make matters worse, pancreatic cancer often doesn’t cause symptoms until it’s spread beyond the pancreas. As a result, survival rates are currently low. However, recent advances in pancreatic cancer detection are offering hope, with new techniques and technologies aiming to identify the disease earlier, when treatment may be more effective.

Therapeutic alternatives

For now, surgery is a major treatment strategy for pancreatic cancer, but it’s only an option in about 20 percent of cases. There are four types of pancreatic cancer based on how it can be treated with surgery:

1. Resectable: The tumor is confined to the pancreas and can be completely removed.
2. Borderline resectable: The tumor has spread to nearby blood vessels but can still be removed.
3. Locally advanced: The tumor has spread more deeply into nearby blood vessels, making surgery challenging.
4. Metastatic: The cancer has spread to distant organs such as the lungs or liver, making it impossible to remove all of it by surgery.

Other pancreatic cancer treatments include:

• Chemotherapy, which uses drugs to kill cancer cells. It also kills normal cells, resulting in negative side effects.

• Radiation therapy, which uses powerful energy beams aimed at cancer cells to minimize damage to healthy cells.

• Immunotherapy, which uses medicines to help the immune system find and kill cancer cells.

• Targeted therapy, which targets pancreatic cancer cells to stop their growth.

Physicians might employ these therapies separately or in combination to reduce a tumor's size prior to surgery, eliminate any remaining cancer cells post-surgery, or alleviate symptoms when surgical intervention is not feasible.

Encouraging breakthroughs in therapy

Research on pancreatic cancer encompasses a wide range of efforts, from investigations aimed at gaining a deeper understanding of the disease to clinical trials evaluating innovative treatments that may soon become standard practice.

Researchers at the University of California, San Francisco, are developing a drug that targets a genetic mutation responsible for nearly half of all pancreatic cancer cases. Clinical trials could start within a couple of years.

In another promising study, researchers found that a new drug, BXCL701, makes pancreatic cancer cells more receptive to immunotherapy. This drug is currently being tested in combination with an existing immunotherapy treatment in clinical trials and has shown encouraging results.

There’s also a national clinical trial testing the effectiveness of a new chemotherapy delivery method. Pancreatic tumors are surrounded by scar tissue that makes it hard for drugs to reach the cancer. This new method aims to break through that barrier of scar tissue and deliver chemotherapy directly to the tumor.

One recent DNA discovery involves the gene HNF4A, which helps organs function. Pancreatic cancer cells appear to disable this gene, allowing them to grow rapidly. While this knowledge won’t bring immediate changes in treatment, it could lead to a targeted therapy for the disease in the future.

Sources of optimism

Pancreatic cancer has historically been one of the most lethal types of cancer, with advancements in treatment occurring at a disappointingly sluggish rate. However, recent breakthroughs and innovative research are beginning to change that trend. If these emerging therapies demonstrate the effectiveness they promise, the prognosis for individuals battling pancreatic cancer may significantly enhance in the near future.