Vanderbilt has New Model to Aid Future Research on Pancreatic Cancer
January 3, 2007 by Gloria Gamat
Filed under Diseases & Conditions
A new animal model for pancreatic cancer exhibiting a high degree of similarity to human tumors has been developed by researchers at the Vanderbilt-Ingram Cancer Center.
Findings from the study on the genetically-engineered mice suggest that the said mice model can provide new channels in pursuing targeted chemotherapeutics and screening methods for one of the most deadly cancers – pancreatic cancer.
According to Hal Moses, M.D., the Hortense B. Ingram Professor of Molecular Oncology, professor of Cancer Biology and senior author of the study, pancreatic cancer is one of the most lethal cancers, with a 5-year survival rate of less than 5 percent, where most cases are diagnosed at a late stage when it is incurable.
To hopefully improve upon previous models, Moses and colleagues have combined the Kras mutation with a “knock out” of the type II TGFƒÒ receptor (TGFBR2), a component of a signaling pathway that inhibits cell growth. Loss of TGFƒÒ signaling could remove the molecular “checks and balances” on cell growth, allowing unrestrained cell proliferation and tumor formation.
The researchers used a genetic manipulation that allowed them to control these genetic changes in pancreatic cells only. The resulting tumors were localized to the pancreas, with no extraneous tumor formation in other tissues ¡V a problem that has complicated previous models.
Find more details from the press release.
[Photo Credit: Nature]
