New Chemoprevention Gene Therapy (CGT) Combo Kills Pancreatic Cancer Cells
August 6, 2008 by Gloria Gamat
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
A research team from Virginia Commonwealth University Massey Cancer Center and the VCU Institute of Molecular Medicine have showed that combining a dietary agent with a gene-delivered cytokine effectively eliminates human pancreatic cancer cells in mice displaying sensitivity to these highly aggressive and lethal cancer cells.
The cytokine used in this study was melanoma differentiation associated gene-7/interleukin-24, known as mda-7/IL-24.
The dietary agent, perillyl alcohol (POH), was combined with mda-7/IL-24, which is already used in other cancer treatments. POH is found in a variety of plants, including citrus plants, and has been well-tolerated by patients who have received it in clinical studies.
Published in the July issue of Molecular Cancer Therapeutics, their results indicated that the CGT approach not only prevented pancreatic cancer growth and progression, but it also effectively killed established tumors — thus demonstrating strong chemopreventive and therapeutic activity.
The researchers are hopeful they can one day move to human clinical trials.
Read the full report from Virginia Commonwealth University.
I believe we need more funding on this research and to further educate MD’s and nutritionists. I want to be a part of this matter. I lost my sister to this disease 1 year ago, who had only 5 months after initial diagnoses of pancreatic CA. She did mention this new medical phenomenon, if it is the same as the implanting procedure, next to the tumor.