Possible new treatment strategies for pancreatic cancer
foundMarch 4th, 2011 - 5:46 pm ICT by ANI Washington, March 4
(ANI): Scientists have identified a protein that can be modified
to improve the effectiveness of one of the most common drugs
used to treat pancreatic cancer. The University of Georgia
research found that a cell-surface protein called CNT1, which
transports cancer-killing drugs into tumor cells, was reduced in
function in two thirds of pancreatic tumors. By improving the
function of CNT1, the researchers increased the effectiveness of
the cancer-killing drugs in pancreatic tumor cells derived from
human patients, said lead-author Raj Govindarajan. The drug most
commonly used to treat pancreatic cancer is called gemcitabine
and works by entering into the DNA of cancer cells and stopping
replication. Many pancreatic tumor cells are resistant to
gemcitabine, which makes the disease very difficult to treat,
explained Govindarajan. The researchers identified different
methods to enhance CNT1 functi